Light in the Darkness
by JeremyX
Summary: This takes place at the end of Season 2. After Aelita dies at XANA's hands, Jeremy's world gets blasted into darkness and he and his friends disappear into some of the first worlds. Can Sora and the crew help Jeremy find his friends and save his world? A lot more is to come. Please R&R!
1. Tied To the Darkness

**A/N: Hey, sorry about the long wait. I've enrolled at the University of Memphis and am now pursuing a degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering. I won't have much time to put stuff on here, but I'll do what I can! To those who await more chapters of my other stories, look out because they're coming really soon!**

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**Light in the Darkness**

Chapter 1 - Tied to the Darkness

I stared at the screen for what seemed like an eternity. The deafening sound from up above my head would be enough to frighten the living daylights out of some people, even my friends looked shaken. After all, our greatest enemy had achieved his greatest victory. He was free from his prison and had escaped into the world, free to destroy it.

If you don't already know, my name is Jeremy Belpois, and today is officially the worst day of my life.

I have just witnessed our archenemy XANA steal the Keys to Lyoko from the mind of my dear friend Aelita, killing her in doing so. Needless to say, I was devastated. Not only was Aelita dead, but XANA was freed from the supercomputer, ready and willing to take over Earth. In fact, he was escaping even now, with the aforementioned deafening noise coming from outside the factory being his essence entering our world fully and completely.

I thought to myself, how_ could it possibly get any worse than this?_

However, after I tore myself away from the screen, which showed the painful evidence of my friend's demise, I heard a strange beeping noise. I looked back at the screen and noticed the supercomputer was making some very bizarre calculations. As soon as I noticed this, the whole of the factory seemed to lurch and shake. The tremor shook me out of the command chair and onto the metallic floor of the computer room.

"What's happening?" Ulrich shouted, looking around in the room for the source of the shaking.

"I don't know!" I shouted as I got to my feet. I looked behind me and quickly noticed that everything and everyone around me had completely stopped moving. Time had frozen my friends and the outside world solid. Ulrich looked like he was going to fall over, Yumi looked like she was trying to help him, while Odd looked like he was going to hurl.

Suddenly, the silence was broken.

_Someone in this world has opened this world's Keyhole._

The unfamiliarity of this deep voice was more than enough to unnerve me. "What?" I turned around and noticed a new feature in the room: a small figure draped and hooded in a brown cloak. I realized it was he (I assumed it was a he) who had spoken.

"Who are you?" I asked instinctively.

_This world has been connected, _the voice came again._ Tied to the darkness, soon to be completely eclipsed._

"This world? Darkness?" I asked. "What are you talking about?" Almost as soon as I said this, the screen started blinking with images I had never seen the likes of before. One was of several spheres linked to a heart shaped icon, another was of a keyhole on a large door, but the last was a vision of my friends being sucked into a dark mist while trying to run away from it. Seeing Aelita as one of those running from the darkness, I realized that Aelita was still alive, but this person – whoever he was – intended to make sure it would not be so for long.

_You know not yet what waits beyond the door,_ the man said.

"The door?" I raised an eyebrow, and then looked back at the images still fresh on the screen. "Do you mean this door?"

_There is so very much to learn._ _You understand so little. _He ignored my question, giving me another of his anecdotes.

I then turned to the hooded figure. "I don't know what you mean with this whole darkness speech," I said, "but I know I won't let you hurt my friends or my home!"

_A meaningless effort,_ the man's voice callously replied. As he spoke, his body began to fade and his voice was gradually reducing in volume until these last words were spoken in a whisper:

_One who knows nothing can understand nothing._

Suddenly, as he completely faded from sight, everything began to move again. Just then, the globe display from the holomap flickered and faded, and something else began to shine inside the bottom of the console. However, this was a sphere of utter blackness, and as I stared at it I realized it was growing larger and larger every second. There were some glowing orange and purple lights inside the sphere, like a small sun was inside of the sphere, but I was more focused on the fact that it now started to draw dust and small objects into it. As it grew bigger still, its syphoning power began to grow as well. I felt myself being drawn towards it, the suction becoming more and more intense. I turned and tried to run, but it kept pulling me back. I ended up grasping onto one of the mainframe support beams on the floor, and my legs were lifted into the air, being drawn to the pitch-dark vortex that was now twice as big as the photomap projection.

"Guys! Help me!" I called out, but noticed that my friends had completely vanished. The only thing that was left of them was their footprints on the lab floor. The shock of this surprise made me slightly loosen my grip. I realized it all too late, as my grip failed and I was flung into the vortex. I knew no more beyond me screaming as I was flung into an unfathomable darkness.

[=]====m

Aerith Gainsborough stared out the window of the rental house in the Third District of Traverse Town. It had been a full three days since her friend Sora, the Keyblade's chosen warrior, had left the world of the town for Hollow Bastion. Since then, she could only imagine what was in store for the young hero and his companions. Her other friends, Yuffie Kisaragi and Squall Leonhart (he called himself Leon) were out patrolling the town for any stray Heartless. Cid Highwind, her other friend, was busy keeping watch over his shop and the folks who had taken shelter there.

Suddenly, Aerith bolted upright as if she had been struck by lightning. She gazed up at the night sky and saw a far-off star shine brightly before it faded away completely. No sooner had she grasped at her chest than Leon and Yuffie charged in.

"What is it?" she asked, worried at seeing the weary expressions on their faces.

"Aerith," Leon started, "we've got trouble."

"There are more Heartless popping up than before," Yuffie said, "and these ones are tougher than the last ones!"

"Really?" she gasped. "Then it's worse than I thought!"

"What do you mean by that?" Leon asked.

"I felt something bad," Aerith replied, "and then I looked up in the sky and noticed that another star had blinked out."

"Which means that another world just bit the dust," Yuffie said.

"Let's hope it isn't where Sora is," Leon said.

Just then, they heard a loud thump from behind them. They all jumped at the sound of the thump, but then turned to find the source of the noise.

"I think it came from the closet," Yuffie said.

"Only one way to find out," Leon replied, and opened the door. No sooner had he done so, than a person tumbled out. This caused everyone to give another jump in shock. They took another look and noticed this person was a teenage boy, no older than 13, with blond hair, a blue long sleeved shirt, tan pants, and thick framed glasses.

"How the heck did this kid get in here?" Leon asked.

"Don't ask me!" Yuffie shouted. "It's not like I'd know that!"

"Enough arguing!" Aerith shouted. "We need to help him. Leon, get him on the bed. Yuffie, get to Cid and explain what happened!"

Leon nodded and slung the arm of the boy over his shoulder. "He's pretty light for a teenager," he noted as he set him on the bed. Yuffie ran out the door to the First District, while Aerith and Leon stayed behind to look over the boy.

[=]====m

I felt an uncanny sense of nothingness for a long time, but then I felt something else. Something… warm and welcoming. I stirred around, trying to grasp if I was still alive or not and finally opened my eyes. I found myself in a small room with a few simple pieces of furniture scattered around. It looked like someone had just moved in there.

"Oh, you're awake!" a voice said. "I was worried for a minute that you weren't going to wake up."

"Huh?" I groaned, turning my head to the source of the sound. "Who are you?" Suddenly, I blinked. I thought I saw… "Aelita?"

"Aelita?" she said as her face changed into another person's. This face belonged to a girl quite a few years older than Aelita, with long brown hair in a braided ponytail tied with a red ribbon. Her eyes were a strange and deep green that showed off wisdom beyond her years.

"My name is Aerith," she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jeremy," I answered. I then tried to get up, only to find myself falling back down, wincing in pain. Aerith placed her hands over my now-shaking body.

"Are you okay, Jeremy?" she asked worriedly.

"I…think so…" I said, suddenly feeling really weak.

"How did you get here?" Aerith asked. "You just fell out of the closet in this house."

"Closet?" I looked around and saw the door of the closet in the corner, and remembered what had previously occurred to me. "All I remember was that I was with my friends, and I was being sucked into a deep darkness… and I can't remember anything after that."

"Darkness?" Aerith gasped, as I had cursed. "So you're the one, then."

"Excuse me?" I raised my eyebrow. "The one what?"

"Your world has been absorbed into the darkness," a deep male voice said from behind me. I turned around to see a man in his mid to late twenties, with shaggy dark brown hair, a black leather jacket with black leather pants, and a thin scar running from above his left eye down his nose to below his right eye. "You were chucked from your world and landed here. This is the place where those who have lost their homes to the darkness end up. Welcome to Traverse Town. My name's Leon, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," I said. I then go to my feet and peered out the window. Outside, I saw a street lined with simple buildings under a starry sky. Numerous lamps dotted the landscape and blinking lights from various buildings' signs further confounded me as to my new sense of place.

"So," I said after a while of gazing into this strange and new scenery, "I'm really in another world?"

"You are," Leon nodded.

"What about my home?" I asked. "What happened to my family? My friends?"

"They've been taken into the darkness just like so many other worlds," Leon answered. "You're not the first, and you're probably not the last."

"What do you mean, 'probably'?" I asked, but then a loud knock was heard at the door.

"Who's there?" Leon yelled.

"It's me, you idiot!" a girl's voice barked out. "Open up before they get me!"

"Who's 'they'?" I asked. "Who is that?" But before I could be answered, Leon swung the door open, and a girl barely older than me dashed inside. She had a small mop of black hair, light brown eyes, and a green bandana tied around her forehead.

"Oh," she said, noticing me. "You're awake! That's good to know! You can call me Yuffie!"

"I'm Jeremy," I said quickly, "but what's going on? Who are 'they'? Why do you look so panicked?"

"Guys," she said, ignoring me, "I've got good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Leon asked, folding his arms.

"More Heartless are popping up like before," she started, "and I saw at least two more stars go out!"

Aerith sighed sadly, placing her hand over her chest. "What's the good news, then?"

"Sora and the gang are back!" she said excitedly. "And he's brought a friend!"

"Really?" Aerith asked. "There was someone there that was on his side?"

"And did he seal the final Keyhole already?" Leon asked.

"I don't know myself," she shrugged, "but he's on his way right now!"

"Well then, we'd better get out there and welcome him," Leon said, and they all walked out the door. As she was leaving, Aerith turned to me. "You should come too, especially if you want to know more about this whole world connection thing, which I can see you're new to."

"Okay," I said, and followed her out the door into the starlit town.

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**Kinda short, I know, but it gets better once Sora and co. get in the story!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	2. Meetings in Traverse Town

**A/N: Here I am again! I am proud to present you with Chapter 2 of this epic masterpiece! It's been extended (and will remain as the format from now on) for your reading pleasure!**

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Chapter 2 - Meetings in Traverse Town

As I followed my new friends into the town, I wondered who they were all so excited to see. "Hey, Leon," I asked him. "When Yuffie said 'he's back', who's back, exactly?"

"Sora," he answered, and said no more. I was further confused as to who that was, but as we rounded another corner, the answer to my riddle had revealed itself, or rather himself.

I saw a young boy, only a year or so younger than me, with spiky brown hair and dressed in a black and white hoodie with baggy red shorts and large yellow shoes. Standing next to him, which was quite a strange sight to me, were what appeared to be a short duck in a magician's jacket and zipper-covered beret, a tall dog-faced guy in a green army-like uniform with a large shield and a fancy hat with goggles strapped to it. However, the most normal sight next to the boy was a girl about his age with scarlet red hair, a sleeveless white tank top, and a pinkish purple skirt with matching shoes.

"Hey, fellas!" the tall guy called out. "We all made it back in one piece!"

"I wasn't sure we'd get out unhurt with all those confounded Heartless chasing after us," the duck said, which startled me. He then turned to the boy. "No pun or offense intended, Sora."

"It's alright, Donald," the boy shrugged. "The whole thing kinda jumped on all of us."

"You nearly scared me half to death, you crazy idiot," the girl chided, shoving him aside. "Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me?"

"Kairi's right, Sora," the tall guy added. "We all were scared when you disappeared."

"Okay, Goofy," the boy who I reasoned was Sora said. He then turned to our company. "Hey, Leon! Yuffie! Aerith! I want you all to meet someone!"

"We do as well, Sora," Aerith replied, "but we'd better discuss this somewhere where we don't all get jumped by Heartless, okay?" She then motioned to me, and I followed her and the others back down the alleyways. A few minutes later, we all came to the building from where I came. Once we were all inside, Leon turned to the front to the group and Sora looked at me.

"Who's this guy?" he asked.

"I'm Jeremy," I said.

"My name's Sora," he said, pointing to himself. He then pointed to his company. "This is Donald, Goofy, and Kairi. Everyone here has already met Donald and Goofy, but Kairi is one of my friends from my home. I've been trying to find her and Riku for so long! Now she's here…but Riku's…" he trailed off, his happy demeanor falling into a sad frown as his head dipped down.

"Don't worry, Sora," Goofy put his hand on Sora's shoulder, "I'm sure we'll get him back soon enough."

"Yeah, you're right," he said, raising his head again.

"Besides, he did help us get out of that creepy castle," Kairi added. "Ansem couldn't stop him from doing that."

"That's true," Sora nodded.

"So the darkness hasn't taken hold of him just yet," Leon said. "But it doesn't sound like he can hold off Ansem's control for much long-" he stopped short when Aerith cleared her throat and shot him a stern glance, motioning to Sora. Leon looked annoyed, but he stopped talking.

"Well, did you seal the Final Keyhole?" Yuffie asked. "I hope we have some other good news."

Sora shook his head. "It wouldn't shut because it wasn't finished, and we had to escape when it was."

I stared at the whole group for a while, still confused as to what the heck was going on. "Uh, someone mind filling me in? I'm more than a little lost here."

Everyone looked at me in a weird way, but Aerith nodded. "We'd better tell him, guys. He needs to know since he's in the same boat as we are."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story," she started.

"But if you want to know what's going on," Leon added, "then you'd better listen carefully."

"Ok," I said, sitting down, "I'm all ears."

Aerith took a deep breath and began. "Did you know that there are many other worlds besides this town and the world you're from?"

"Wait," I replied, "what do you mean by 'world'?"

"Clearly that's a 'no', Aerith," Leon said.

"Well, there are other worlds," she continued, "by which I mean a world in of its own plane of existence, but linked to other worlds by a powerful force. That force is the darkness which threatens all worlds."

"Darkness?" I asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a force of pure darkness," Leon said. "There's really no other way to describe it other than that."

"And from that darkness came the Heartless," Aerith added.

"Heartless?"

"Creatures without hearts," she replied. "They are born from the darkness in people's hearts, and there is darkness in almost all hearts."

"Almost?"

"One good example is right here," Leon said, motioning to Kairi. "That girl is one of the seven Princesses of Light. Her heart has no darkness at all inside of it, which is why her body did not fade when her heart left her body."

"Her heart did what?" I jumped.

"The darkness can gain a creepy hold on you," Yuffie said. "It can take you over little by little until it consumes your heart and destroys your body. But Kairi here gave her heart to someone to prevent its power from being misused."

"Who was it?" I asked.

"She gave it to me," Sora spoke up. "I don't know how, but when Riku faced me, his Keyblade resonated with Kairi's heart inside of me. But when I beat him, I freed her heart by using the Keyblade on me. I thought I was finished, but she brought me back."

"Whoa, you're going too fast for me, Sora," I held my hands up. "What's a Keyblade and where did we get to you and Kairi?"

Sora looked down, but Kairi took his hand in hers. "You can tell him, Sora," she said, and Sora nodded.

"You've heard about the worlds and the darkness," Kairi said, "now you'll hear about how we came into the picture."

"My friend, Riku, is under the control of the darkness," Sora said. "He opened the door to darkness in our world and sucked it and everyone but him, me, and Kairi into the darkness. I woke up here in Traverse Town, but Riku and Kairi were nowhere to be found. I met Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy, and found that I had been chosen to be the wielder of the Keyblade." He held his hand out and a pillar of light sprouted from it, changing into a key-shaped sword-like weapon. "This weapon is the only hope we have against the Heartless. I then began my journey through the world to seal the Keyholes. These were the hearts of the worlds that had to be sealed with the Keyblade to stop the darkness from coming in. I've now sealed all of them except for two: the one in Olympus Coliseum and the Final Keyhole back in Hollow Bastion. Once I seal the Final Keyhole, all of the worlds should go back to the way they were."

"Okay," I said, trying to process this. Suddenly, I realized something and jumped to my feet. "Wait, then what about my world? My friends?"

"Who knows?" Yuffie shrugged. "Lost to other worlds, lost to the darkness, but either way, you won't be seeing them for a while."

"How can you say that so casually?" I shouted, lunging at her. She sidestepped and I fell flat on my face.

"That should teach you to mess with the great ninja Yuffie," she taunted as I got to my feet.

"I think your friends are just fine," Aerith said. "I can tell your friends have strong hearts. They won't go down that easily."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"I have a sense about these things," she smiled.

"Okay then," I said, and then turned to Sora. "Now, you said Riku was controlled by this darkness, but is there someone behind all of this? It doesn't sound like this just randomly happened for no reason."

"You're right, actually," Aerith said. "The arrival of the darkness was the result of the work of a man named Ansem. He was a researcher from the world we came from, and he was studying the Heartless."

"But the darkness took hold of him," Leon added, "and he willingly gave his body and heart to it and became darkness itself."

"Well, that's unsettling," I said, holding my stomach. "What's so great about this darkness anyway?"

"Those who are attracted to darkness are those who are attracted to power," Leon replied, "and power is what darkness is. We all have weapons to fight the Heartless, but the Keyblade is the only weapon that can stop the darkness for good."

Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard. Leon was the first to move, silently but swiftly moving to the door, and leaning against it. He then motioned us to stand back, which we did.

"Who is it?" he called loudly.

"Please don't be alarmed," an old male voice called, rather amused. "It's only me!"

Leon sighed, and opened the door. The person who came in was a tall old man in a long light blue cloak with a tall pointed hat of the same color. He also had small spectacles resting loosely on the bridge of his nose, a slightly crooked stick in one hand, and a letter in his other hand. He looked at me and pushed his spectacles up and clapped his hands, rubbing them together.

"You are Jeremy, correct?" he asked.

"I am," I answered, surprised that he knew my name. "Who are you?"

"My name is Merlin," he said, "and I have something for you." He held the letter out to me. It had the words, "To Jeremy" written on it in fancy gold letters.

"Who sent this?" I asked.

"Sorry, but I haven't the slightest idea," Merlin sighed, "but it was sealed with a peculiar stamp and I can feel great magical energy pouring from its contents."

Curious, I opened the letter, and read it aloud for all to hear it:

_The warrior boy can be found in the hall of heroes,  
the fighter girl is in a garden of nonsense in a mad world,  
the animal boy is in the jungle world of fellow animals,  
and your princess is in the final castle of darkness._

_Follow these riddles, and you will find your friends._

I stared at the letter and everyone stared at me, all of us confused by this strange message.

"What the heck does this mean?" Yuffie asked.

"It said 'follow these riddles and you will find your friends'," Aerith said, "and since it was addressed to Jeremy…"

"…then I have to do what the letter said," I finished. "Follow the riddles, and I'll find my friends! They're okay! I knew it!" I jumped up and down, thrusting my fists in a victory dance. However, something occurred to me. "How am I supposed follow these riddles? What do they mean?"

"Well, let's think about it," Leon said. "I'm guessing it mentioned your friends when it spoke of the warrior boy, fighter girl, animal boy, and princess, but the last part is a tricky subject."

"Not necessarily," Aerith said. "I think I've got it figured out."

"How's that so?" Yuffie asked.

"It spoke of worlds a few times," she said, "so maybe they're in other worlds, like you said, Yuffie."

"They are?" she raised her eyebrow. "I just said that to say it, I didn't think it was actually possible."

"Well, apparently, it is," Aerith said. "Sora, do any of those worlds sound familiar to you?"

"Let's see…" the boy said, putting his hands behind his head in a relaxed look. "A hall of heroes, a garden of nonsense in a mad world, a world of animals, and a castle of darkness…" He closed his eyes and hummed for a long time, but then suddenly his eye shot open. "I know where they are!"

"You do?!" I gasped.

"I know these worlds because I've been to them before!" he said. "The mad garden world sounds like Wonderland, the animal world is Deep Jungle, the hall of heroes is Olympus Coliseum, and the final castle is Hollow Bastion!"

"That's where the Final Keyhole is!" I said. "And the princess can only be Aelita! We're going now!" I ran to the door, but Leon grabbed my arm.

"Hold on, Jeremy," he said. "It's too dangerous to go there right away. The Heartless are at their very strongest in that world."

"And there are three others you can go find," Yuffie added, "not to mention one of them contains a Keyhole yet to be closed."

"They're right, Jeremy," Sora nodded. "We need to head to one of those worlds first before we even think about Hollow Bastion."

I looked at everyone for a while, but then slumped. "Fine, then, where do we start?"

"I would suggest going to Olympus Coliseum first," Merlin said. "I can tell the Heartless are fewer there than at the other worlds, so it will be much easier."

"Then it's settled," I said. "But, uh, how do we get there?"

"We have our ship," Goofy said.

"You'd be more than welcome aboard," Donald added.

"Thanks, guys," I smiled.

"That's our requirement!" Donald cheered.

"What is?" I asked.

"Keep smiling and don't frown!" Goofy replied.

"That's the rule!" Sora added, smiling himself.

"Okay," I said, "then let's go!"

"Follow us!" Goofy said, and he, Donald, and Sora went to the door. As Donald and Goofy left, Sora turned to Kairi. "I'll be back soon, Kairi!"

"Hold on, Sora," she called, and rushed up to him, placing a small item in his hand. "Take this; it's my lucky charm. It's very important, so be sure to bring it back to me!" she said, her hands on her hips.

"I will," Sora nodded, clutching the item tightly, "I promise."

With that, we all dashed out of the house and went down the alleyways to the large space we were when Sora arrived. I noticed a large set of doors near the end of the district, and Sora and the gang marched up to them, pushing them open. It was going through those doors, that I was met with something I had not expected.

I saw what looked like a spaceship, if it was built by a small child. It was a long red block with a long rectangular pyramid nose that had a yellow section near the end of it. There was a clear dome atop the main block, and there were also yellow twin cannons with two small white wings on each one.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It's our Gummi Ship," Donald said. "It's what we've been using to go to other worlds."

"Ready to go, Jeremy?" Sora asked, standing next to the large vessel.

"Okay, sure," I said, standing next to Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Suddenly, a white light encased us and the scene around us shifted to a cockpit of a spacecraft. There were five seats in a circle, and each one faced a control board. The chair in the front faced a control board that covered the whole front panel.

"That's my spot," Donald said, as if he were reading my mind. He plopped in the chair, Goofy sat behind him, and Sora sat next to Goofy. I chose to sit in between Sora and Donald.

"Blast off!" Donald shouted, and pressed a large green button on the control panel.

"Wait, that's it?" I gasped. "No countdown? No 'prepare for launch'?"

"Prepare for launch!" Sora smiled.

I sighed as we rose into the sky, and we shot forward as the lights sped past us, soaring to a new world.

"Hold on, guys," I said. "I'm coming for you."

* * *

**A/N: There they go to new (to him) worlds! The next one is on the way!**

**UPDATE: 7/7/2013 - I originally meant to write Wonderland, but Olympus Coliseum became my new first choice after debating whether Ulrich or Yumi should be first. Ulrich it was, and Olympus Coliseum it is. It only took a spam review to get me off my ass and fix it.**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	3. The Ninja in the Coliseum

**A/N: I wanted to publish more during the break I got from Music class, but oh well.**

**Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, not by me. Code Lyoko is owned by MoonScoop, and not me.**

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Chapter 3 - The Ninja in the Coliseum

Steel clashed against claw for a few minutes before the steel blade pierced the shadowy flesh, causing the strange creature the youth was fighting to disappear in a plume of black smoke. Not five seconds later, three more creatures, smaller than the first, dashed towards the sword-wielding boy. Unlike the first one, which was a being of pure blackness, these creatures were different colors and were floating in mid-air. Some of these creatures were blue and some were red, but each one had a head that looked not unlike a yellow pointed hat.

"You're doing great, kid!" a voice rang out behind the boy. "Just remember these four words: Keep your head in the game!"

"I got it, already," the boy hollered back, not even bothering to state the error made by the speaker in his statement. With a few swift and powerful strikes, the strange creatures fell to the light blade. The boy, noticing that there were no more enemies, sheathed his weapon and turned around to face the person who had previously spoken out to him. The being in question was a short, fat satyr, or faun, with red hair on his goat legs, a matching goatee, and two small brown horns poking out from his head.

"Not bad, kid," the satyr said. "You may be just as good as Herc in a few years' time."

"I don't have a few years," the boy said impatiently. "And for the last time, my name is Ulrich, not 'kid'."

"Give an old satyr a break, kid," the satyr sighed, "it's a coach thing or something. Maybe I'll stop calling ya 'kid' when ya get stronger."

"Well, he is doing better than most others do in your Cup, Phil," another voice said. Ulrich turned and saw a very well-built young man with a larger sword strapped to his side, and wearing a bronze armor breastplate and thigh strapped sandals.

"Come on, champ!" Phil groaned. "You know real strength when ya see it, and I don't see any of it in this kid at all!" He then rubbed his chin. "Well, at least not enough of it to make a good enough impression!"

"Well, he already beat the Phil Cup and the Pegasus Cup," the man said, "and he was almost wasted away when you found him not two hours ago, but he's already won the preliminaries and two of the cups."

"What's your point, Herc?" Phil asked.

"I say maybe you should let me be the judge of his strength," he grinned.

"You mean," Ulrich raised his eyebrow, "you want to fight me?"

"Once you've beaten my cup, the Hercules Cup," he replied. "You want to set him up, Phil?"

"You're reading my mind, champ!" Phil jumped up in excitement. "Let's get you prepped, kid!"

"It's Ulrich!" he shouted, clearly annoyed. "But you'll call me that when I win the cup!"

"Kid," Phil laughed, "I got two words for you on taking on Hercules: You got no chance!"

Ulrich let out a sigh of annoyance as he headed towards the vestibule of the large building he was in. He had no memory of how he got there, but he knows that he was found by the satyr, Philoctetes, and the tall guy, Hercules. He then somewhat proved himself of a fighter when he passed the exams to enter the prize championship matches at the Olympus Coliseum. He figured if he could win, then we would find out how he could get home and find out what happened to Yumi, Jeremy, and Odd.

"I just wish Aelita wasn't…" but he stopped himself from going further. "I can't dwell on sadness. I'll find out how to get home, and then we'll mourn Aelita. No doubt poor Einstein's crying his eyes out." He hung his head low for a while, but then squared his shoulders and walked into one of the training rooms in the inside of the coliseum.

"Look out, Olympus Coliseum," he grinned, "here comes Ulrich Stern."

[=]====m

I stood outside of the massive doors to the equally massive building that stood before me. Sora, Donald, and Goofy told me that this was the world called Olympus Coliseum, and I could see where it got its name from. The coliseum was a towering structure with two gold statues of warriors holding swords that were crossed in a sort of arch high over the doors. There was a massive wall built around the whole building, and the only way in was a door larger than the door to the coliseum, if it was at all possible that doors could be that massive.

"So, according to the letter's riddle," Sora said, "your friend Ulrich should be in here."

"That's what the theory is," I said, holding the letter up as he spoke.

"Well, let's go find out then!" Donald cheered, bursting through the doors before any of us could protest.

"Is he always like this?" I asked the other two as we walked to the doors.

"Pretty much," Sora replied.

"Yeah, I've always known him to be like that," Goofy added, "and I've known him for forever."

I chuckled at this as we entered the large coliseum, and found us inside a vestibule of sorts. It was a small room with two short pillars on either side of us, and twin candles resting on each pillar. I noticed a plaque and a trophy resting on a shelf above one of the pillars.

"Hey guys," I said, "look at this." I pointed to the two items, and Sora looked surprised.

"That's the plaque for the Phil Cup and the trophy for the Pegasus Cup," he said. "I know because I have one too. This one's for a different guy, though."

I looked, and the plaque read, "Phil Cup Champion: Ulrich Stern."

"Ulrich Stern?!" I gasped.

I looked at the trophy and it read, "Pegasus Cup Champion, Ulrich Stern."

"Guys, these accolades are for Ulrich!" I shouted. "He is here, and he won these contests!"

Sora shook his head. "They aren't contests, they're fighting arena tournaments."

"Even better!" I clapped. "I knew he was strong, but he sound like he's super strong here! Let's go find him!" I started running around the lobby, looking for Ulrich. "Hey, Ulrich! It's me, Jeremy! I saw your trophy and your plaque! I came to find you! Where are you?"

Suddenly, I heard a roar, a crash, and a loud clanging noise from further inside the coliseum, and I thought that Ulrich would be the cause of it.

"Hold on, buddy!" I shouted. "I'm coming for ya!" I then darted into the doorway, and came out into a large, spacious arena. I noticed more of those creatures that Sora called Heartless were fighting against a boy with a drawn sword. I instantly recognized him as I shouted out to him.

"Ulrich!"

He slashed another Heartless, but then heard me and whipped his head around to face me.

"Jeremy?!"

He looked startled, but was soon interrupted when a team of Heartless in armor leaped at him. He slashed them into smoke, and faced me again. I noticed that he was dressed in his Lyoko avatar, which surprised me. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing!" I said, and turned to a tall guy who was watching the fight. "What's going on down there?"

"He's in another one of the tourneys," the man replied. "He's in until he gets to the final match or if he gets beaten."

"Why are there Heartless here?" I asked.

"The Heartless are the fighters in the tourneys," he replied. "Phil over there caged them and lets them out at fighters participating in the arena."

"And who is the last fighter?" I asked.

"You're looking at him," he grinned. "The name's Hercules."

"Wait," I said, "he has to fight you?" I looked at him again and noticed the sizable muscles he had.

"Yeah," he shrugged, "but don't worry. I take it lighter on most people than on others. This guy, though… I may have my work cut out for me." Noticing Sora and the others behind me, he waved them over." Oh, Sora! Good to see you again!"

"You too, Herc," Sora smiled. "Any more signs of Hades' tricks?"

Hercules shook his head. "After you took down Cerberus, I can tell he's not happy. I expect he's plotting more tricks, though. Probably has to do with that other guy who came in here."

"Oh, you mean Cloud?" Sora asked. "Where'd he go?"

"He came by here just a minute ago," Hercules shrugged. "He left shortly after and said something about 'settling a score'."

"Man, what a hothead," Sora said.

"You think he was rash?" Phil grumbled. "That kid in the arena was almost half-dead by the time we found him."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"A day or so after you left and we finally got things fixed up after you took down Cerberus," Phil started, "this kid just waltzed right in here, stumbling over every other step he took. He lasted pretty well up until he got to the door, and he was mumbling something about 'not yet,' and when he finally collapsed outside the doors, he coughed a name. Yumi, I think."

"Yumi," I said. "Ulrich was trying to find her."

"You know this person?" Hercules asked.

"Yeah, she's one of my friends," I answered. "She and Ulrich are really close, and we all were separated when our world was engulfed in darkness. Ulrich must've wound up here and was looking for her before you guys found him."

"Speaking of which," Hercules said, "I'd better get down there. It's my cue."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's beat all of the Heartless," he said, waving at the arena. When I looked, Ulrich was all alone in the arena, with all of the Heartless gone. "Which means it's my turn to fight him."

"Good luck, kid!" Phil called as Hercules leaped from his place and into the arena. "Just remember two words of advice: Don't give in!"

"That was the plan!" Ulrich shouted as he drew and readied his sword. Hercules drew his sword, and the fight began.

Punches were thrown, swords clashed, and both fighters shouted out as their battle endured for what seemed like hours, when it actually was only half an hour by the time Hercules started whirling around like a top, slashing his sword in a circular motion. I could tell from the glint in his eye that Ulrich saw an opening, and he gave a very low foot sweep, and knocked Hercules off his balance long enough for Ulrich to slice his sword out of his hands and send it hurtling to the other side of the arena. Stunned by this, he stopped for a moment, and Ulrich gave a swift and powerful kick to Hercules' abdomen, knocking him down. Ulrich then stuck the point of his blade at Hercules' neck when he looked up.

"Looks like I win this, champ," Ulrich said, panting heavily. He then sheathed his sword and held put his hand to Hercules.

"Wow," the warrior said as Ulrich helped him up. "That was incredible! I didn't even try to hold anything back! I guess you've got some hero stock in you after all! Well, Phil?" He looked at the satyr. "Am I right or what?"

"Yeah, you may be onto something, champ," Phil nodded. "If he was good enough to beat you, he's definitely got potential to be a great hero."

"More like a great zero to me," a sarcastic voice rang out from nowhere.

"What was that?' I gasped as I rose to my feet.

"Only one voice I know of is that obnoxious," Hercules said angrily.

As he spoke, a cloud of black smoke appeared between Hercules and Ulrich, and a tall figure came from it. He was clad in a black robe, his skin was a dark blue, and his hair, if you could call it that, was like a living blue fire. His eyes were a creepy shade of yellow, and he had a presence that sent shivers down my spine.

"Obnoxious?" he said, pointing to himself. "Oh, really? As for me, I prefer the term 'sinister', or maybe 'better than you'."

"Hades," Hercules growled. "What do you want? Come to get revenge for Cerberus?"

"Eh, I got over that sooner than you'd think, Blunderboy," Hades shrugged. "You see, I've got my own set of goals on who a real champ is, and you two," he pointed at Hercules and Ulrich, "are at the top list of 'real chumps'."

"You want a test of might? Then do I have a deal for you! And you'd better listen there, key boy," he said, looking at Sora, "because this deal holds the key to finding the Keyhole that I hid in this world!"

"You know where the Keyhole is?" Sora gasped. "Where is it?"

"Like I said, kid," Hades said, "if you want it, listen up. There's a new game in town, and believe me: it's gonna be a killer! Ladies and gentlemen, the Hades Cup is now open! The contestants will be pitted against some of the fiercest and most terrifying Heartless and monsters ever to roam the Coliseum! And the prize for the winner: besides the undying glory and fame, I'll let him know the location of this world's Keyhole! What's the catch? Unfortunately, only the key brat and the sword punk are allowed in this cup and only one can win the final match! So, here's to the best loser coming out on top!" And with that said, he disappeared in a plume of black smoke and evil laughter.

"Now I see why you hate him so much, Hercules," I said to him.

"He's the god of the Underworld," Hercules said, "but he may as well be the god of pots and pans because he's always cooking up trouble."

"I've got to win this thing," Sora said. "It's the only way I can get to the world's Keyhole."

"I'll drop out once you get far enough," Ulrich said. "I'll bear the brunt of the battles so you can save your strength for the final match."

"Thanks, Ulrich," Sora smiled. "I'll owe you one after this."

"It's no problem," he brushed it off. "I do more for my friends." He then looked down, and looked at me. "Jeremy, do you know where the others are? Are they with you?"

"I'm sorry, Ulrich," I said, "but they're not with me. I don't know precisely where they are, but I have an idea."

"You do?" his face lit up.

"According to this letter I got," I said, waving the letter about, "they must be in some of these other worlds."

"Like which ones?" he asked.

"Some that Sora has been to before," I replied, "but we need to do what must be done here first."

"Right," he said. "If we want to find our friends, we must win the Hades Cup and close the Keyhole."

"And that," I said, looking at the cage at the end of the arena, "will definitely be easier said than done."

* * *

**A/N: More to come soon (I hope)!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	4. The Hades Cup

**A/N: This one took me a longer while to make than I thought. Anywho, I hope you enjoy!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3.  
Kingdom Hearts (C) 2002-2013 Square Enix, Disney.**

**Support the official release!**

* * *

Chapter 4 – The Hades Cup

I sat on top of one of the pedestals in the lobby of the coliseum while Ulrich, Hercules, Phil, Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood at several other places. We all pondered over what was the best course of action to take with this Hades Cup. Apparently, only Sora and Ulrich could enter, and only one of them could win the tournament and be told the location of the coliseum's Keyhole.

"Just as a thought," I asked, "if you win, Ulrich, do you think that Hades would let you tell Sora the Keyhole's location, or point it out to him?"

"Not likely," Hercules quipped. "Hades isn't someone who would let you do something like that without you burning in one way or another."

"Dang," I hissed. "Then how long can Sora go with Ulrich as a battle partner?"

"Oh yeah," Phil said sarcastically, "let's just waltz right up to the god of the Underworld and ask, 'Hey, Hades, how long can the new junior hero be with the other junior hero?' That's gonna get the same result as your other plan, kid."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I grumbled, "and my name is Jeremy."

Ulrich sighed, and looked outside the window into the outside of the arena. He then raised his eyebrow and shifted to get a better look at something.

"Hey guys," he said, waving us over. "Take a look at that thing on the wall over there."

We all walked over to the window, which was really a large open hole in the wall, and noticed a large blue slate next to three smaller purple ones.

"What are those things?" I asked.

"Those are the rosters for the three cups in the coliseum," Hercules answered.

"But what's that big blue one?" Sora asked.

"It has a picture of that Hades guy on it," Goofy noted.

"So then that may be the roster of the Hades Cup!" I said. "Let's go check it out!" I rushed outside, and the others followed close behind. We all walked up to the blue board, which was larger than all of us put together, and looked at the top of it, with the words "Hades Cup" in large letters around Hades' head.

"The Hades Cup," I read from the top. "Come and see the deadliest monsters and fiercest battling that the Olympus Coliseum has yet to see! Can our super-zeroes at the bottom fight their way to the top in the 50 rounds of this grueling competition, or will the competition gobble them up? Find out when these wannabe wonders decide to step up and fight!"

I felt my gut sink as I read that middle line again in my head. "50 rounds of fighting? That'd be enough to break almost anyone, maybe even Ulrich."

"You're forgetting one thing, Jeremy," Ulrich said. "I've fought for more than that on Lyoko and never once backed down." He brandished his katana as he said this.

"That's true," I said. "So when does it say that the tournament starts?"

Ulrich took a closer look, and raised his eyebrows in shock. "In exactly fifteen seconds."

"What?" I gasped. "That's crazy!"

"Now it's fourteen seconds," he corrected. "It's counting down!"

"Oh man!" I said. "We need to do something!" As I said this, Ulrich and Sora started running to the arena. "What are you doing?" I shouted after them.

"We're doing what you said, Einstein!" Ulrich said. "We're doing something about it, and that's winning this cup!"

"We'll be fine, Jeremy," Sora grinned. "No need to worry!"

"Then why am I worried more than ever?" I asked myself as I followed them and the others into the arena.

As we entered the arena, I saw a horde of those Heartless creatures waiting for Ulrich and Sora. Some were like the simple shadowy ones, others were the armored ones, and I also saw some small flying ones that were colored red, blue, yellow, and green. At the front of the cage, where more Heartless and other fighters were bound to be waiting for Ulrich and Sora, stood Hades, grinning devilishly.

"So glad you losers could make it!" he said.

"Like we'd miss out on this!" Ulrich said, drawing his swords.

"And you won't call us losers for long!" Sora added.

"Then I'd better not keep you kids waiting nay longer!" Hades laughed, and then snapped his fingers. "Let the fun…

BEGIN!"

As soon as he said this, he vanished, and the Heartless attacked. I looked at one of the walls in the arena, and noticed a scoreboard. It was the same one that we saw outside the Coliseum. It read, "Hades Cup, Round 1."

"This is round 1?" I said to the others.

"This is actually a normal match in the coliseum, Jeremy," Hercules said. "Once all of the Heartless are gone, the match is over and the next match begins." He then pointed back to the arena. "See? They've already done it!"

When I turned to look, I saw that the Heartless were gone. "Wow," I said. "That was quick."

"But remember: this is only round 1," Phil said. "It only gets worse from here on in."

"Thanks a lot for that, Phil," I sighed.

I looked at the scoreboard, and it now showed "Round 2."

"This is going to be a long day," I said to myself as more Heartless emerged from the gates and charged at Sora and Ulrich, who were already charging to meet them.

[=]====m

Sometime later, I felt a little more optimistic. The scoreboard showed the results of Round 34, which showed that a team of magic witch-shaped Heartless called Wizards and black ball Heartless called Darkballs had been defeated by Sora and Ulrich, who were showing little to no signs of getting tired. After they had cleared rounds 10, 20, and 30, they had been allowed a short break to catch their breath, which was something I was very relieved for.

"Maybe Hades is being a little fair for once," I said to Hercules, who sat next to me in the arena seats.

"I wouldn't count on it, Jeremy," he said back. "He always has something up his sleeve and he never does something without a reason of his own."

Just then, a deep rumbling was heard and felt throughout the entire arena. We all jumped to our feet in surprise and looked around for the source of the noise and shaking. I looked at Sora and Ulrich, and saw that they were looking at the gates to the beast holding cells. As they were the only things in the arena that were not rumbling, I realized that whatever was coming out of the gates was the source of the sudden disturbance.

"This doesn't feel like any of the Heartless that came out from before," I noted. "It doesn't even feel like those big chameleon ones, the Stealth Sneaks."

"Maybe that's because it's not a Heartless," Phil said, pointing to the arena. "Look over there!"

Just then, the gates opened, and a large black creature bounded out of the cell and into the arena. It looked like a gigantic black dog, except for the fact that it had three heads, and that each one was more demonic than any normal dog that I have ever seen. Also, the pure essence of darkness that it spewed from its mouths had me unnerved enough to shiver with fright.

"That's Cerberus!" Phil shouted. "He's Hades' loyal pet and the guard dog of the Underworld."

"Cerberus?" I gasped. "But I thought Sora defeated him a while ago!"

"I guess Hades brought him back," Phil shrugged. "He can do things like that, but not easily or very often."

"Well, I hope that Ulrich can stand a chance against him!" I said, turning back to the arena.

Sora had jumped onto the beast's back and began slashing at its heads with his Keyblade, while Ulrich ran around it to distract it from Sora's attacks and his own attacks at its feet. Ulrich then called on his Triplicate ability, and each clone delivered a crushing blow to each of the beast's heads. Roaring in pain, it slumped to the ground, down for the count.

"Wow!" Hercules cheered. "That was amazing!"

"Compared to the monsters he fought on Lyoko," I said, grinning, "that mutt was nothing."

Another rumble shook the arena. "Well, he's going to find something that is tough in here!"

I looked at the arena, and large black Heartless carrying swords charged into the arena along with white light bulb angel-winged Heartless.

"Those guys look strong," I admitted, "but I know Ulrich. He's the strongest guy I know, and he won't give up or let anyone or anything beat him that easily!"

Sure enough, Ulrich and Sora had defeated the Heartless relatively quickly and more Heartless of different kinds were coming to replace them. Another large purple Heartless came out, a Behemoth, and lumbered at the fighters, but they jumped onto its back, slashed its large horn off, and jumped of as it vanished in a cloud of gray vapor.

Minutes later, I looked at the scoreboard and noticed that Round 45 was showing as the round coming up next. The opponent's name was covered up with a bunch of skulls and crossbones, and I felt that this meant trouble. Sure enough, black smoke covered the bottom of the arena, and I tried to see if Ulrich and Sora were still in the ring. When the smoke cleared, I saw the two of them in the ring along with a very familiar black robed character.

"Hey, um, remember when I said that only one of you could win the cup?" Hades snickered. "I meant, of course, that NONE of you will win because YOU'RE ALL GOING DOWN SIX FEET UNDER!"

As he shouted those last words, he erupted in a plume of fire and smoke, and I was startled to see what became of it. The fires on his head had grown fiercer than before, his skin turned a blazing shade of red, and his eyes were like fire themselves.

"Meet your final opponent in the Hades Cup, kiddies!" he shouted as he advance on Sora and Ulrich. "Now prepare to BURN!"

He lobbed a giant fireball at the two fighters, but they dodged aside just in the nick of time. Hades then shot twin streams of red hot flames at the boys, but they were still able to dodge them. However, it now seemed that the stress form the previous battle had caught up to them, and they both looked very tired.

"Hey, getting too hot in here?" Hades taunted. "Well, you know the old saying: 'if you can't take the heat, too bad!'"

He shot another stream of fire, but the guys dodged before the flames could even come close to singeing their skin.

"Man, what a hothead!" Ulrich snickered.

"But he's nothing we can't take down!" Sora said, twirling his Keyblade. "Ulrich, watch this!"

As Hades threw another fireball at the heroes, Sora hit the glowing sphere with the Keyblade and sent it back at Hades. It struck the god of the Underworld with powerful force and knocked him off of his feet. As he staggered back up, I noticed his red glow had gone, and his normal blue glow had returned.

"He's weakened!" Hercules shouted. "Now's your chance to strike!"

Sora and Ulrich nodded, and both of them ran up towards the fallen god, and slashed at him with their respective weapons. Hades fell to the ground again, and clutched his chest.

"No, it can't be," Hades gasped. "This…isn't…happening!"

"But it is, Hades!" Sora said. "Now tell me where the Keyhole is!"

"Sorry about that, key boy," the evil god laughed, quite raspy, "but I lied. I don't know where the Keyhole is. All I know is that in order to find it, you have to beat this guy!"

Just then, another tremor, stronger than any that had been felt before, erupted throughout the coliseum. Sora and Ulrich looked back at Hades, but he disappeared in a wisp of black vapor. As if on cue, a gigantic creature lumbered into view from behind us all. It seemed to be a creature with two heads and made of solid stone. It had long thick arms, a large rotund body, and rather stubby legs.

"That's the Rock Titan!" Hercules shouted. "That thing's even stronger than Cerberus!"

"Seriously?" I looked at him.

"He's one of the Titans," Hercules said. "They're the beings that came before the gods themselves. This guy's not as strong as most of the other titans, but he still packs one heck of a punch!"

"I can sure as heck see that!" I said, looking again at the monsters sizable body. "I hope Ulrich never has to fight something this tough on Lyoko, because if he beats this guy, I don't think he could pull it off a second time somewhere where the enemy has an even greater advantage than this one!"

Ulrich and Sora quickly dodged the rocks and fireballs that the best shot out from its twin mouths, but they were looking even more tired than they were when they fought Hades. It thrust its right arm, which was clenched in a fist, at the ground, but they dodged just in time. Seeing a chance, Ulrich jumped up its arm and slashed his sword at the beast's body, but it bounced right off of it and out of his hand. It sailed over Ulrich's head and stuck in the ground far behind him.

The Rock Titan then raised its left arm, preparing to strike at Ulrich, but he quickly jumped off of its body and then super sprinted to where his sword had landed, ripping it out of the stone floor, and ran back to the middle of the arena.

"How are we supposed to beat this guy?" Ulrich asked, gasping for breath.

"His body can't be hurt," Sora said, panting as well, "but he must have some kind of weakness. You don't get to be that strong and not have a cost to your strength."

Ulrich gave another look at the monster, and snapped his fingers. "Wait, that's it!"

"What's it?" Sora asked.

"It's its legs!" Ulrich said pointing to the creature. "It has great strength and strong arms, but it has short and stubby legs! Those legs, along with its extremely heavy body, greatly hinder its movement! If we can take out the legs, maybe we can win!"

"That sound like a plan," Sora said, grinning. "Alright, you make the call!"

"You got it!" Ulrich nodded, and dashed to the right side of the arena. "You get to the other side, Sora! When I give the signal, we race forward and slash at each of the beast's legs. You take the left one and I'll take the right one!"

"I'm on it!" Sora shouted, clenching his fist. He then looked up and shouted, pointing at the Rock Titan, "Here he comes, Ulrich!"

"Wait for it!" Ulrich said, crouching into a ninja stance and gripping his saber tightly. A few dreadful seconds passed before Ulrich shouted, "NOW!"

They both rushed forward at the same time, and jumped at the monster's legs. Ulrich slashed his sword at the beast's right leg, and Sora slashed his Keyblade at its left leg. It roared in pain, and it buckled as it fell to the ground its arms the only thing keeping it from falling down completely.

"He can't move!" Ulrich said. "His body's so large that he can't get back up!"

"That's great and all," Sora said, "but what do we do now?"

"We do this!" Ulrich said, jumping onto its body and running up it.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sora exclaimed. "Its body can't be hurt!"

"I'm not attacking its body!" Ulrich shouted, now at one of the beast's heads. "Follow me and get up here!"

Sora then realized what this meant, and he leaped onto the beast's other head. He and Ulrich nodded, and both of them jammed their weapons into the beast's eyes and slashed at its necks. With a final roar of pain, it reared up, knocking the two warriors off of its body. It then gave a helpless moan of defeat, fell over backwards and moved no more. Just then, the ground underneath it opened up, and it swallowed the beast. Then, as quickly as it came, the fissure vanished. Sora and Ulrich smiled, and collapsed to the ground. All of us in the stands ran to the arena to help them.

"Ulrich!" I said, helping him up. "Are you all right?"

"I've been better," he said, "but I've never felt so good about winning a fight."

"What about you, Sora?" I asked, looking at the Keyblade warrior.

"Same here," he said, grinning. "Hey, look at that!" He pointed to the ground where the Rock Titan once stood. In the place of the beast was a small black trophy with dark blue bat's wings for handles. It had these words engraved on it: "Hades Cup winners, Ulrich Stern and Sora." It also had a note attached to it. "The stone which you rejected is the key to finding your friend's friends, Sora."

"The stone that I rejected?" Sora asked, puzzled.

"Hey, that's it!" Phil spoke up. "Do you remember when I thought you were Herc when you first came here?"

"Yeah, you tried to get me to move that huge…" Sora started, pausing when realization dawned on his face. "That's it! That boulder is what's holding the Keyhole!"

"Then let's get back to the lobby!" Hercules said.

We all ran back to the coliseum lobby, or vestibule as some call it, and Sora held his Keyblade out at the rock. "Huh?" Sora looked at his weapon. "It's not working."

"Maybe you should try moving the rock now," Phil said.

"If you say so," Sora said, pushing against the rock. After a second or two, he easily pushed it aside. "Whoa, that felt…really light all of a sudden."

Just then, a small pool of light emanated from the floor where the rock once was.

"That's the Keyhole!" Sora shouted, swinging his Keyblade out to it. A stream of light then shot out from it, and I heard a loud noise that sounded not unlike a lock locking.

"The Keyhole's locked!" Sora said. "Now we can head to the next world! We're one step closer to finding your friends, Jeremy!"

"All right!" I cheered. "Now let's go!"

"See you around, Phil," Sora said as we left.

"Thanks for everything," Ulrich waved.

"Don't mention it," Hercules smiled, waving goodbye. We all left the coliseum and headed to the large door away from the building.

"You ready to go, Ulrich?" I asked him.

"You know it, Einstein!" he snickered.

We all boarded the Gummi Ship, and flew off to the next world. Yumi and Odd were still to be found, and Sora would still have to make it to Hollow Bastion where Aelita was. But with Ulrich and Sora at my side, we would find them in no time.

* * *

**A/N: Now we get into the action of exploring the other worlds! Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	5. Castle of Darkness, Castle of Madness

**A/N: I'm sorry that i haven't updated this in a while, I've just been caught up with a lot of stuff. Also, I'm more inspired with ideas for this story's sequel than with this. I have worked out an outline for this, and will hopefully finish this before the end of July.**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3.**

**Kingdom Hearts (C) 2002-2013 Disney, Square Enix.**

**I don't own anything listed here. Please support the official release. LIKE KINGDOM HEARTS III, BABY!**

* * *

Chapter 5 – Castle of Darkness, Castle of Madness

The mechanical passageways of the looming castle reverberated with an ominous whirring noise, which echoed throughout the entire castle. The entrance hall, which connected with three other corridors, including a spacious library, was the most silent place in the castle. Suddenly, the silence was broken when a bright light flashed in the hall and a loud sound, like a tornado, could be heard from a mile away. When the light faded and the sound dulled out, a teenage girl was left behind in place of the light. She lay on the floor of the hall, completely motionless.

Meanwhile, in a distant chamber, six young women surrounded an altar with an intricate heart shaped symbol carved into the front of it and on a deep green banner above it. The ladies' eyes were closed, and their hands were interlocked with each other. Suddenly, one of the women, a young girl in a deep violet dress with fair skin and long strawberry blond hair held back by a diamond tiara, gasped and her eyes snapped open as she broke her hold with the other ladies. They, in turn, broke their circle and looked at her in alarm.

"What is it, Aurora?" asked a black haired woman in a blue and yellow dress.

"Did you not feel a strong presence enter this castle, Snow White?" the blond woman, Aurora, answered quietly, with a hint of awe in her voice.

"Was it a force of darkness?" asked another woman. Like Aurora, she had long blond hair, but she was clad in a dress of pure white.

"No, Cinderella," Aurora replied. "It was a force of pure light, a light so pure that it may rival the light in all of our hearts."

"Surely you jest!" a fourth woman exclaimed. She was dressed in jade green, with caramel skin and long black hair braided into a ponytail. "No light could possibly be so pure!"

"Well, it seems as if this one is, Jasmine," Aurora said. "I felt it enter into the main hall."

"You don't suppose that it's Sora, do you?" a little blond haired girl asked. Her hair was pulled back with a black hair band, and clad in a blue and white dress.

"No, Alice," Aurora replied."I can feel that it is not Sora. For though we have stopped the darkness form spreading in this world, Sora has not found the new door back to this world that we have made for him."

"Then who could it possibly be?" a yellow dressed brunette asked.

"That I do not know, Belle," Aurora answered, "but I do know that it is a young girl, and the light in her heart is almost exactly identical to that of our seventh sister."

"Her heart was as pure as Kairi's?" Belle gasped.

"I simply don't believe it!" Cinderella said. "Where is she now?"

"She has appeared in the entrance hall," Aurora replied. "We must go to her side at once, else we will let the Heartless find her before we do."

"Indeed," the five other women nodded, and they all followed Aurora from the chapel to the entrance hall.

[=]====m

As we docked next to another world, I looked at the screen to see which of the worlds this one was. The display read, "Wonderland."

"You've been to this world before, right?" I asked Sora. "What is it like?"

"It's strange, to say the least," he replied. "It's like logic is thrown to the wind and replaced by utter nonsense."

"Like what kind of nonsense?" Ulrich inquired.

"You'll know when we land," Sora said, and pushed a button on the main console. The cockpit vanished in a brilliant light, replaced by a completely new sight. We now stood in the middle of a lush garden with tall grass, large flowers, and big fat mushrooms. There was also a dirt trail in front of us which led to a large and grand castle in the distance.

"Well, this doesn't look too bad," I said to myself.

"Watch and learn, guys," Sora said as he and his friends marched on. "You'll see how wrong you are soon enough."

I looked at Ulrich, and he shrugged. I shrugged as well, and we both followed Sora and his companions down the dirt trail. We both gazed up and down at the scenery of greenery, and I was contemplating Sora's words in my head. _This is a world where logic is replaced by nonsense? _I thought to myself. _It looks pretty normal to me. What could Sora have meant by what he said?_ Suddenly, my thoughts were completely thrown to the wind by a loud shout from far away.

"Are you out of your mind?" a voice shouted. "I haven't done a single thing wrong! You think you can get away with this insanity just because you can?"

"OF COURSE I CAN!" an even louder voice shouted. "I KNOW YOU'RE GUILTY BECAUSE I JUST SAID SO! GUARDS! OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

I gasped. "Off with her head!?" I looked at Ulrich, whose face was full of fear. "Are you thinking what I'm dreading too?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "That might be Yumi!"

"Then we've gotta hurry! Let's go!" I shouted, and we all ran off to find the source of the outburst.

[=]====m

Back in the darkened hallways of the castle in the other world, the six princesses quickly but cautiously navigated through the secret passageways, which were free of Heartless, to get to the main hall. They emerged into the top floor of the main library, which was as close to the grand hall as one could get without going through the main passages. Once they descended the stairway to the floor of the library and opened the doors to the grand hall, they noticed something there that they knew was not there before, and it startled them.

A young girl, no more than thirteen years old, was surrounded by at least a dozen of the Shadow breed of Heartless. She was dressed in a pink hooded shirt with a dark pink jumper dress over it. She also wore scarlet boots lined at the tops with pink fur. What the women thought was most intriguing about her was the fact that her hair, which was quite voluminous, was the same shade of pink as her clothes. In contrast to this amount of pink, her eyes were a bright but deep shade of emerald green.

"Who is she?" Alice asked. "How did she get here?"

"There will be time for questions later, Alice," Aurora said, pointing at the creatures that had further cornered the frightened girl. "We must save her from those Heartless!" She then stepped out in full view of the Heartless and pointed at them. "Begone, creatures of darkness, and never again enter these halls or threaten any who come within this castle!"

Almost at once, all of the Heartless vanished into the shadows. Soon after, those shadows faded away, as if they had never been. The princess sighed and fell against one of the walls. As Aurora leaned against the wall to steady herself, the other five princesses ran up to her.

"Aurora!" Bell gasped. "Are you alright?"

"I am fine," she replied, standing up. "That action just drained a bit of my power, that's all. But do not concern yourself with me, how is the girl?"

Alice knelt down to the girl, who was cowering near the indoor waterfall. "Are you alright?" she asked.

The girl's startling green eyes locked with Alice's blue eyes. "Who are you?" she asked in a scared tone of voice.

"My name is Alice," she replied, and then motioned to the other five princesses. "These are my fellow Princesses of Heart: Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, and Jasmine." Each of the princesses curtsied as Alice mentioned their names. As the girl looked at them, she blinked and looked all around her.

"Where am I?" she asked, a bit more scared than before. She then held her head in her hands and moaned. "Why can't I remember anything? My head feels like it weighs a ton."

"You're in a place called Hollow Bastion," Aurora replied. "You appeared out of nowhere not five minutes ago, and then you were ambushed by those creatures, correct?"

"Yes, I do remember that," she nodded. "But other than that, I can't remember much."

"Do you also remember your name?" Belle asked.

"Of course I know my name," she replied, looking a bit annoyed. "My name is Aelita."

"Well, Aelita," Cinderella said, smiling, "We welcome you here." She held her hand out, Aelita took it, and the princess helped Aelita get to her feet. "Now, do you know of anything else pertaining to how you entered into this world?"

"This world?"Aelita asked, clearly confused. "But aren't I in the factory now?"

"I'm afraid you aren't in any kind of factory," Alice said. "This is a dark castle, and you're from another world than this."

"Another world?" Aelita raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"You may not know this, Aelita," Snow White said, "but there are many other worlds besides this one and the one that you come from. They all exist in the same space, but they've never been connected before. That's why very few people know about them, and those that do keep it as a close secret."

"Well, I have a pretty big secret back in my world," Aelita chuckled, more comfortable with the situation. "But do tell, what does this have to do with me? How did I get from my world into this one?"

"I wish we knew for sure," Jasmine said. "Most people who just show up in other worlds have had their own worlds taken over."

"Taken over by whom?" Aelita asked.

"It is not by whom, but by what," Aurora answered. "And that is the darkness that threatens all worlds. From the darkness came the Heartless, who ravage worlds and bring them to ruin."

"What are Heartless?" Aelita asked.

"Those creatures that attacked you," Jasmine replied. "They have gone from world to world, destroying all who are in their path. They are not unlike locusts."

"And you think that my world's been taken by them too?" Aelita gasped, clutching her chest. "What about my friends? My home? What happened to them?"

"It's only an assumption," Alice waved her arms, trying to calm Aelita down."Your friends could be in other worlds as well, safe and sound. However, your world has been absorbed by the darkness and will stay in their dark realm until the light returns to the worlds."

"What do you mean by that?" Aelita asked.

"This may take a while to explain," Belle said, "so how about we go somewhere safer than this, where we can converse without fear of being attacked by those Heartless? The main chapel is the safest place in the entire castle. It's just down this secret passageway." The other princesses walked towards the doors to the library, and then turned back to Aelita. "Will you come with us?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Aelita nodded. "Okay, show me the way." She then got up and followed the princesses to the secret passages.

[=]====m

As we got through the garden to the castle, we noticed a large group of what seemed to be playing cards with spears and axes lined up in military formation. They had cornered someone who was in a cage suspended high in the air by a thick gold chain. Next to the cage was a throne-like podium, and in the chair sat a large woman in a dress of black and gold covered by a cape of red and black. She held a small heart shaped staff in one hand, wore a gold crown on her head, and her face was a mix of classy sophistication and total insanity.

"Who are these things and who is that up there?" I asked Sora.

"That's the Queen of Hearts," the Keyblade wielder replied, "and those are her card soldiers. She's what I meant by this place is insane, because she's insane."

"Do you not hear my commands?" the Queen of Hearts shouted, waving her staff wildly. "Serve my justice! I command you!"

I looked up at the cage, and gasped. "Ulrich! Yumi's in that cage! The Queen is trying to kill her!"

"But why?" Ulrich asked.

"Hey, Your Craziness!" I shouted at the mad woman. "What is this girl guilty of?"

The queen glanced at me, and noticed Sora and the others. "Have you yet to bring me the girl Alice? I cannot await her sentence! Do not try my patience!"

"I'm trying my hardest to not reply to that," Sora groaned.

"Hey, I asked a question," I shouted.

"Eh?" the queen glanced at me and Ulrich. "And who are these boys?"

"The name's Jeremy," I replied, "and Ulrich and I are friends of that girl in the cage, whose name is Yumi. Tell me, what is she charged for?"

"That's simple, really," she replied. "Those creatures who tried to steal my heart came back, and she was with them! That's more than enough proof to convict her!"

"Baloney!" Ulrich barked. "That's no reason to convict her of doing anything wrong. She could have been attacked by the Heartless and running from them."

"The proof for my accusation is because I say so!" the queen barked back. "I am the queen, and all ways are my ways! Since you have confessed alliance with this girl, Yumi, then you are also as guilty of these crimes as she is!"

"WHAT!?" I yelled, unable to restrain myself. "What kind of queen are you?"

"The best kind!" she replied. "Guards, seize them!"

At once, the card soldiers closed in around us. Ulrich drew his katana, Sora drew his Keyblade, Donald drew his staff, and Goofy brought his shield out. The soldiers charged at us, but we kept them at bay. Ulrich used the flat of his sword to stop the black suited cards from advancing, and used the blade to slice the axes into pieces. Donald used his magic to generate fire, ice, and lightning to protect Yumi from the soldiers that advanced on her. Sora fought the cards head-on, and Goofy used his shield to disarm the spears from the red suited soldiers.

Soon, the cards were beginning to lessen in number, but Yumi was still trapped in the cage. I wished she could help us, but the bars were placed too close together for her arms to come out and fling her fans. As I looked at the cage, I noticed a large Keyhole near the middle of it. Just then, it hit me. I looked over at Sora, who was seemingly free of fighting off enemies.

"Sora!" I shouted to him. "Can you use the Keyblade on that?" I pointed to the lock.

Sora looked over at it and grinned. "Leave it to me, Jeremy!" He then twirled his Keyblade, and shot a thin beam of light at the lock. A clicking noise was heard, and the door to the cage flew open. Yumi then jumped out and threw her fans at the soldiers, who crumpled to the ground. After that card soldiers fell, Yumi ran over to us.

"Boy, am I glad to see you guys!" she smiled, and hugged me and Ulrich tightly.

"Same here," I said, returning the hug. I noticed Ulrich blushed slightly, but I kept it to myself.

"What are you fools standing around for?" The Queen of Hearts barked. "Get them and serve them the proper sentence for treason against the crown!"

"Oh boy," I groaned.

"Time to book it!" Sora said, and ran for the forest.

"Yumi, follow us!" Ulrich said, and we all followed Sora back through the forest to where we had landed. Once we stopped, Yumi looked completely bewildered.

"Why are we stopping here?" she asked.

"You'll see," I said, and looked at Sora.

"Donald," Sora said, "take us up."

"You got it," Donald nodded, and pressed a button on a remote control. The forest disappeared, and we were back in the Gummi Ship.

"What the heck just happened?" Yumi gasped. "Where did we go?"

"We're back in the Gummi Ship," Goofy replied.

"Well, what's that?" she asked, her hands on her hips.

"Yumi," I said, "this is going to take a while to explain."

"What is?" she asked.

"You'll know when I tell you," I replied, and sat down at a table next to Ulrich, motioning for Yumi to sit down next to us. "It's about as crazy as you can think of, but Ulrich and I have seen it all to be true for ourselves. Once you hear it, you'll never think the same way about 'other worlds' again."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, now there's some clarity in here. More will be reveled next chapter, and there's more to this than you think! What could that be, you may ask? Well, you'll have to wait until next chapter, but I'm working on that right as I type this. It'll maybe be up in about a week or so, maybe more, but I hope for in less than a week.**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	6. It's a Deep Jungle Out There

**A/N: SO sorry that this took so long, but this chapter's longer than all of the others before it! I hope that will satisfy you all until the next one is done!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3.**

**Kingdom Hearts (C) 2002-2013 Square Enix.**

**Please support the official release. Watch Code Lyoko Evolution and wait for Kingdom Hearts III.**

* * *

Chapter 6 – It's a Deep Jungle Out There

"Okay, so my friends are probably in some of these worlds with this Sora person," Aelita said, "and he's trying to defeat the Heartless to restore the worlds back to how they used to be?"

"Indeed," Belle replied.

"And when the worlds are restored, then my friends and I can go back home?" Aelita asked.

"That's precisely the idea, Aelita," Jasmine nodded.

"Do you know where Sora is now?" Aelita asked, her face beginning to light up.

"I'm sorry," Alice said, shaking her head, "but we don't know where he is right now. We have no way of contacting him or knowing where he is."

"Oh," Aelita frowned. "But how did you know that Jeremy is with Sora?"

"We can occasionally see visions of Sora in this place of wisdom," Aurora explained, "and our latest one showed Sora and a boy about your age with blond hair and glasses, perfectly matching your description of Jeremy, travelling with Sora and his companions."

"But these visions are completely random," Snow White said, "and we have no power over what we see or when these events may be taking place."

Aelita sighed sadly, hanging her head. "Well, that just stinks."

"However," Cinderella said, "We do know that he is going throughout the worlds, and that your friend Jeremy looks eagerly and restlessly for you."

Aelita smiled. "Well, there's one thing that I can count on. Jeremy's coming for me." She then stared at the design above the altar in the chapel and sighed contentedly. "I just hope he knows where I am."

[=]====m

"So we've all been zapped to different worlds because our world is gone?" Yumi asked us.

"That's the story," I nodded sadly.

"But when Sora will defeat Ansem, everything will go back to normal," Ulrich said.

"So all we have to do is find Odd, then?" Yumi asked.

I nodded. "According to the letter, he should be in the world that Sora calls Deep Jungle."

"And we're coming up on that right now!" Donald said, pointing at the map on the screen.

We all moved to the screen, which showed a map of all of the worlds that Sora had been to in his entire adventure. The style of the layout reminded me of the holomap on the supercomputer from back home. It showed our journeys from Traverse Town to Olympus Coliseum, then to Wonderland, and it showed our path to Deep Jungle as well.

"So how close are we?" Ulrich asked.

"We'll be there when we get there," Donald said irritably. "It probably won't be for a while."

"Gawrsh," Goofy said, "The map says we'll get there in less than a minute. Fifteen seconds, if I'm reading it right."

"Oh, what do you know about this kind of stuff, you big palooka?" Donald quacked.

"More than you may give him credit for, Donald," I said. "He's right, look at the map! We'll be at Deep Jungle any second now!"

"All right!" Yumi said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll be glad to have Odd back with us!"

"Wow, I guess I know a lot about this after all, a-hyuck!" Goofy chuckled.

"Ah, phooey," Donald huffed.

"We've arrived!" Sora cheered. "Everyone get ready to jump ship!"

"Jump ship?" Yumi gasped. "We're not really jumping out of this thing, are we?"

"Of course not," I laughed. "It'll only take a second to warp to the world's surface. You won't feel a thing. You'll barely even notice anything."

"Well, apart from your whole vision shifting to the new world," Ulrich pointed out.

"That's a good point," I nodded. "But like I said before, it's barely noticeable."

"Forgive me if I'm a little bit unconvinced about all of this," Yumi sighed.

"There's no need to be nervous," I said, gesturing around. "We're already here."

Yumi looked around, and saw that we were not inside of the Gummi Ship as she thought, but we were all surrounded by tall, thick trees, with the sound of a living jungle all around us. Everything around us seemed to be just bursting with life. When she turned around and took another look, she saw that we were standing on the surface of a large stone cliff overlooking an expansive and crystal clear lake which was filled by a large crashing waterfall on the other side of the cliff.

"Wow," Yumi gasped, staring in awe at the majesty of this natural wonder. "This is really amazing."

"Well, it's about to get less amazing right about now," Sora growled, pointing behind us. "Look over there!"

We all looked over the other side of the cliff to the jungle behind us, and saw what we had dreaded to see: a plethora of monkey-shaped Heartless heading right for us. Sora drew his Keyblade, Donald and Goofy drew their weapons, and Ulrich drew his katana. As they jumped down the sides of the cliff, I followed them. Noticing that someone missing, I looked back at Yumi.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked. "Those are Heartless, after all."

"Huh?" she looked at me with confusion before noticing Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ulrich fighting the Heartless. "Oh, right!" She then jumped off the cliff and threw her Tessen fans at some of the Heartless, which evaporated into dark matter upon impact, the captured hearts floating up for a while before fading away. Yumi stared up wt them for a while, very confused.

"What was that all about?" Yumi asked Sora. "I thought the Heartless just fade away, not spit something out when they've been defeated. When I faced the Heartless, they just turned to nothing before my eyes after I beat them."

"Well, they're not the only kind of Heartless, Yumi," Sora said. "In fact, there are two kinds of Heartless. First, there's the group like Shadows and Darkballs. They're Heartless of the purest darkness itself, and they can't hold the hearts that they take. Then there's the Heartless with those emblems. They are the ones who hold the hearts that they took, and they can wrap their essence around any separated heart they happen to come across."

"Separated heart?" Yumi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You remember what Sora said about the Heartless stealing people's hearts, don't you?" I asked her.

"Yeah, kinda," she replied.

"Well, that's what happens to the hearts when the darkness takes hold of them," I said.

"Okay," she said. "So if we defeat the Heartless, the hearts go back to where they belong?"

"That's the theory," I nodded.

"Well, that settles it, then," she grinned, taking her fans out. "Beat the Heartless and restore the hearts. It can't get simpler than that." She then unfolded them and threw them at two of the Powerwilds, and the fans ripped through their shadowy bodies like tissue paper. When the fans came back to Yumi, she flashed a sly smile.

"Well, this was easy," she said.

"Perhaps too easy," I added, frowning.

Just then, there came a loud crashing noise from deeper in the jungle and an equally loud and very high-pitched scream shortly followed it. After all of that, we all were almost knocked off our feet by a sudden vibration. We all turned around to face the mass of greenery and saw scores of various birds flying away from the trees in a panic.

"Somebody heeeeeelp meeeee!" the voice shrieked.

"Who the heck was that?" Sora asked.

"As if that voice could belong to anyone else," Ulrich laughed.

"There's no doubt in my mind about it," Yumi chuckled. "That's Odd, all right."

"And knowing him," I added, "he's probably close to the cause of the noise and the vibration."

"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked.

"Well, Odd's well known around our world for getting himself in a pot-load of trouble," I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Well, that sounds a lot like Goofy over here," Donald quipped.

"Hey, that's not nice, Donald," Goofy piped up. "I'm not that clumsy, right?"

"Trust me," Donald said, folding his arms, "you really don't want me to answer that."

"Alright, enough bickering," I said. "Need I remind you that we have a situation at hand?"

"Oh, right," Donald said. "Where do you think it's coming from?"

"It looked like it was coming from over there," Yumi said, pointing to the distance, where I saw a tree whose sheer mass and height dominated every other tree in the jungle. Not only was it enormous and thick, but it also supported what appeared from this distance to be a house.

"That's on the way to Jane's campsite!" Sora said. "We'd better warn her!"

"Who's Jane?" Ulrich and I asked.

"She's someone from this world," Sora replied. "She has a camp somewhere at the edge of the jungle, and she could be in danger if whatever's in there comes after her. She also mentioned that the tree house over there used to be hers when she landed here. That also could have been where your friend Odd ended up when he was flung into this world. I know that's where I ended up."

"Well then, what are we standing around here for?" I said. "Let's go find him!"

"I know the quickest way to get there," Sora said, and it leads right by Jane's campsite! Follow us, guys!"

Sora ran towards a bamboo thicket, and Ulrich, Yumi, and I followed behind him, Donald, and Goofy. After a few minutes, we cleared out of the thicket and found ourselves in an open space, surrounded by tons of crates, tents, tables, and assorted scientific equipment. In the center of the clearing was a tall flagstaff, which flew the Union Jack, the symbol of England.

"Wait a minute," I said. "How can something from our world be here? Does that mean that England is in these other worlds as well? Or is England itself another world?"

"What do you mean, Jeremy?" Ulrich asked.

"Look at that flag," I said. "It's the flag of England. But this isn't our world, so England can't be here. How can one possibly explain this?"

"I'd just chalk it up as something that doesn't need explaining, Einstein," Yumi joked. "Maybe our world and other worlds are more connected than we think."

"That is a possibility," I said. "Alright, enough other world physics for one day, let's try to find Odd here."

"Our thoughts exactly," Yumi said. "Hey, Donald! Do you think you and Goofy can lend us a hand in trying to find some clues about Odd?"

"No problem," Goofy said.

Donald looked like he was going to interject, but then sighed and followed Goofy. She and Ulrich, along with Donald and Goofy, began sorting through the tools and boxes, trying to find some clue as to where Odd may be. I followed Sora to the tent, and we both went inside.

"Hey, Jane?" Sora called out. "Are you in here?"

"Oh, Sora!" a cheery female voice rang out, with a light British accent. "I didn't expect to see you here again."

As I entered the rather large tent, my eyes met a tall woman with light brown hair that fell past her shoulders, deep and clear blue eyes, and was dressed in a plain white tank top shirt and a long dark brown skirt that fell to her feet. As she noticed Sora, she also glanced at me and looked confused.

"Oh, who's this?" she asked. "Is he a new friend?"

"Yeah, actually," Sora answered. "Jane, this is Jeremy Belpois. Jeremy, this is Jane Porter."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Porter," I said, extending my hand.

"Nice to meet you as well, Mr. Belpois," she said, shaking my hand.

"Do you happen to know if a friend of mine is around here?" I asked. "Sora took me here because I told him that I have reason to believe that he's somewhere in this jungle."

"Well, what does he look like?" Jane asked.

"He's kind of short, maybe a few centimeters shorter than me," I said, acting out a bit to visualize Odd's appearance. "He's kind of skinny, he's got blond hair spiked up into a single point, he's all dressed in a purple theme, and he may also have a long purple tail."

"A tail?" Sora and Jane exclaimed together.

"Yeah, that's a bit of a long story," I said, sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck. "I think I may have heard him earlier when a loud noise came from the jungle."

"You mean that awful crash and rumbling?" she said. "I felt it as well. I wonder what could have caused it."

As I thought on this, I heard a deep grunt come from outside the tent. When Jane heard it, her face lit up.

"Oh, he's back!" she said, and went to the tent flaps. "Jeremy, I'd like you to meet someone." When she pulled the flaps back, a hunched over figure crawled into the room. At first I thought it was a strange kind of monkey, but as I took another look, I saw that it was an adult human. His dark brown hair was styled in natural dreadlocks that hung loosely around his face, which was wild and strange. He looked at me, and I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my gut.

"Jeremy," Jane said, snapping me out of my trance, "this is Tarzan." She then spoke to the man, but spoke much slower, pronouncing every syllable. "Tarzan, Jeremy."

"Je-re-my," Tarzan slowly grunted, and he then made a grunting noise that sounded kind of like a heart beating.

"That sound was something that Sora and I figured out earlier," Jane said. "It means that he sees your heart. That grunt means 'heart' in his language."

"Oh," I said, "that's interesting."

"Strong heart," Tarzan said. "Looking for friends. Friends have strong heart."

"Yes, yes I am looking for friends!" I said, becoming excited at Tarzan's statement. "He's kind of small, smaller than me, and his hair's all spiked back like this." I made a pyramid shape with my hands. "He may also have a tail. His name's Odd, have you seen him?"

"Odd," he said, and then scratched his head, staring at me the whole time. "Friend, small, tail, Odd." After a while of this, he spoke up. "Tarzan came to tell Jane."

"Came to tell me what?" Jane asked.

"Tarzan found strange panther deep in jungle," he gutturally replied, and then turned to me. "Panther looked like Jeremy. Panther was not right color."

"What color was it?" I asked, thinking that he had seen who I was looking for.

"Panther was color of hippo," he said. "Panther was also scrawny."

"That's Odd alright!" I said happily. "Where is he?"

"Panther at tree house," he replied, pointing to the tree house in the distance. "Panther in trouble."

"In what kind of trouble?" Jane asked.

"Panther was attacked," he replied. "Same kind of monster Tarzan fought with Sora. Different monster than one with Clayton."

"Clayton?" I asked.

"He's someone who I was working with," Jane explained. "He said he was here to study the gorillas like me, but he really wanted to hunt them all. He paired with a Heartless that tried to destroy the jungle, but Sora and his friends, along with Tarzan, stopped the Heartless and Clayton before they could do any harm to the jungle."

"It wasn't easy, though," Sora said. "That Heartless was tough, really tough."

"Oh, really?" I gulped. "That doesn't sound good. Odd doesn't know about the Heartless, so he could be in some serious trouble!"

"Then you'd better go find him!" Jane said.

"My thoughts exactly," I said, and then turned to Tarzan. "Tarzan take Jeremy and Sora to tree house?"

Tarzan nodded and grunted in reply. "Tarzan take friends to tree house. Friends help panther Odd."

"Thank you, Tarzan," I said, and then rushed outside the tent. "Yumi! Ulrich! Donald! Goofy! I found someone who's seen Odd! He's going to take us to him!"

"You did?" Yumi glanced at the tent.

"That's great, Jeremy!" Ulrich cheered.

"Don't thank me," I said, as I opened the tent flaps and Tarzan came out. "Thank Tarzan here." I gestured to Ulrich and Yumi. "Tarzan, these are my friends, Ulrich and Yumi."

"Ulrich," Tarzan said, staring at the virtual samurai. He then turned to his geisha girlfriend. "Yumi." He then made another heart-grunt, and smiled. "Friends follow Tarzan. Tarzan show where Odd panther is. Have little time." He then dashed off into the jungle, leaping into the treetops and swinging from branch to branch like a monkey.

"Mind explaining this a little bit, Einstein?" Yumi asked.

"No time, guys!" I said. "Odd's in trouble. You heard what Tarzan said, we don't have much time! There's a powerful Heartless in the jungle about to make mincemeat out of Odd!"

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Ulrich said, rushing after Tarzan. "Let's go, guys!"

"About time," I said, running after him. "Yumi! Sora! Donald! Goofy! Come on!"

"We're coming!" Sora said, following us. "I know the way to the tree house too, you know!"

We all followed Sora and Tarzan along the trail though the lush jungle to get to the tree house and Odd. A few Heartless came out here and there, but Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ulrich made quick work of them. After a while, we came to a large tree with thick vines running up its middle. When Tarzan, Sora, and Ulrich began to climb up, we all got the message and climbed up the vines as well. After a long while of climbing, during which I was sweating like a pig on Christmas Day, we reached the top of the tree, where the tree house was. I turned around and got a grand view of the entire jungle spread out beneath us.

"Wow," I said. "That's remarkable."

"No time for sightseeing, Einstein!" Ulrich said, pointing to the tree house behind us. "Look over there!"

I turned around, and saw arrows of some sort flying from the tree house's already broken windows. Just then, a huge chunk of the wall just blew off, and Odd, dressed in his Lyoko attire as I thought, flew out of the tree house and onto a large fishing net spread out under the tree house in an enormous semicircle. As he got to his feet, he looked at all of us, who had now gathered around him.

"Oh, hey guys!" Odd said, tired but happy. "You found me!"

"Yeah, lucky us," Ulrich said. "Barley into this new world and already you've made a mess. That should be a new personal best."

"Would you quit trying to steal my jokes and help me?" Odd whined. "There's this weird chameleon thing that's trying to kill me here!"

I looked back up at the tree house, and saw, as Odd had mentioned, a large chameleon like creature. This creature had gray skin, wild gold eyes, and was branded with the Heartless emblem on its chest.

"It's a Heartless, all right," I said. "I believe that's your cue, Sora."

"This one's not like the Stealth Sneak I faced when I was last here," he said, brandishing his Keyblade. "This one looks different, maybe it's stronger."

"Well, I can see one thing that help us out," Donald said. "If the Stealth Sneak was weakened by magic, maybe this one is too!" He shot a bolt of lightning from his staff, and the lizard-like Heartless was then paralyzed, giving off quite a lot of static.

"Allow us," Sora said, and motioned to Ulrich. Ulrich jumped up and slashed the beast's legs from underneath him, and Sora slashed at the emblem with the Keyblade. The beast slashed its claws at them, but Sora and Ulrich deflected the attack and countered. They both brought their weapons together and slashed at the monster's back, sending it off the tree house. With the strength of these two fierce attacks, the Heartless fell from the tree house's net and into the trees below, fading away as it fell. Ulrich and Sora slowly climbed down to the net, a bit winded but unharmed.

"You guys okay?" I asked.

"Just fine, Einstein," Ulrich grinned. "So now that we've found Odd, what next?"

"Simple," I replied. "We go to Hollow Bastion and find Aelita. Then we can help Sora beat Ansem and free our world."

"Uh, what are you guys on about?" Odd asked. "Did I just miss something here?"

"We'll explain it all once we get back to the ship," I said, and then turned to Tarzan. "Can you tell Jane that we found Odd and that we're leaving to find our last friend?"

Tarzan nodded. "I will tell her. All will be well. Go and find her, Jeremy. Aelita is your light, and you both need each other."

I gasped at Tarzan's sudden comprehensible sentence, but he then turned his back and flew off into the jungle, giving off a war cry as he went.

"Well, that was interesting," I said. "Are you ready to find Aelita, Odd?"

"But Jeremy," Odd said, tensing up. "I thought you'd know by now that she's…"

"She's not dead, Odd!" I laughed. "She's still alive! I've seen it for myself! She's in another world, but she's alive!"

"What are you on about now?" Odd asked, clearly confused.

"Trust me, Odd," I said, as Donald whisked us back to the Gummi ship, "you'll know soon enough."

* * *

**A/N: At last, this story is coming to its best part! I hope you will be patient with me as I write away!  
**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	7. The Light That Links the Hidden Worlds

**A/N: I regret that I don't update here as frequently as I want to. Sorry for making you all wait for all my stories. There aren't much of you who do watch me compared to others, but I am glad that some people pay attention to me. It keeps me doing this.**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3.**

**Kingdom Hearts (C) 2002-2013 Square Enix, Disney Interactive.**

* * *

Chapter 7 – The Light that Links the Hidden Worlds

Odd stared in amazement at the inside of the Gummi Ship, which was unlike anything he, or any of us, had ever seen the likes of before. His mouth hung open as his head darted around the spacious control room, looking in wonder at everything he could. He turned to look at us, and we just smiled and nodded at his fascination. Sora, Donald, and Goofy also looked at him like everything was totally normal.

"Okay," he gawked, "I know I'm one for acting crazy here, but this is just freaking awesome!"

"If you thought all of this was cool," I said, "you won't believe what's coming next."

"What's coming next?" he asked.

"We're heading back to Traverse Town," Sora replied, "which is another world entirely."

"Another world?"

"Yeah, there are actually a lot of those, you know," I said.

"Eh, define what you mean by 'another world', if you would," Odd said, furrowing his brow.

"Our world and the world you were thrown into are separate worlds," I said, "but they share similarities that bind them together, even though they have almost been separate since they began."

"But our world has been taken over by a dark power that is swallowing up other worlds as well as our own world," Ulrich continued, "and only Sora has the power to stop the darkness and return the worlds to how they used to be."

Odd was smiling widely for a while, but his smile faded and he looked down. "But what about Aelita?" he asked. "What good is getting our world back if she's gone forever?" He then turned and looked at me with surprise. "I thought that you, of all people, would be devastated, Jeremy!"

"That's just it!" I said happily. "She isn't gone! She's still alive, Odd, I know she is! I've seen it for myself!"

"What!?" Odd gasped. "How can that be!?"

"I'm not sure of it myself," I replied, "but I was given a letter that told me how to find you, Ulrich, and Yumi." I took the letter out of my pocket and held it out for Odd to see. "I followed it, and I found you guys scattered across the worlds. The letter also told me that Aelita is in the world that Sora needs to go to in order to open the door to world of the Heartless."

"But that world, which is known as Hollow Bastion, had been sealed off after our last visit," Sora added, "and we need to find a new way back there. I guessed that we could find some answers in Traverse Town, which is why we headed back in the first place. But then when Jeremy showed up here, we pretty much forgot about everything else and went to help Jeremy find you guys."

"Well, I think that it's safe to say that we're very grateful for that, Sora," Ulrich said, grinning.

"But now I think you have a new job to do," Yumi added, "and that's finding a way to Hollow Bastion and rescuing Aelita, along with saving the rest of the worlds."

"That's why we're heading back to Traverse Town right now," Donald said, pointing to the controls. "We're using the warp tunnels, so we should be there at any moment."

As soon as he said this, a loud beeping noise came from the command console, and Sora jumped into his chair. "We're coming out of the warp tunnel, guys! Brace yourselves!"

We all hooked hands and gripped Donald's chair, despite his fervent motions that tried to shove us off. The ship rocked and shook for a few seconds, and a bright light shone through the windows and the windshield. After a short while, the light faded and everything settled down. As we looked out the window, we saw that we were hovering over Traverse Town.

"Wow, that was quick," Odd said.

"Prepare to land," Donald said, and pushed a few buttons on his chair.

Instantly, the inside of the Gummi Ship was replaced by the urban landscape of Traverse Town. Odd blinked for a few seconds before he finally got what was happening. He then took to gazing at the town, awestruck at this new view.

"And here I thought the ship was new for me," he said.

"The spare house is in the Third District," Sora said, motioning to a pair of large doors to our right. "It's just past these doors. I opened the door with the Keyblade after the Heartless locked it the first time I was here, so it works now."

He pushed the doors open, and we followed him through the doorway. He, Donald, and Goofy led up a ramped road to the spare house I had been to before. Thankfully, we did not encounter any Heartless, but I still felt just a little bit uneasy. He knocked on the door, and it opened to reveal Leon and Aerith standing in the house's doorway.

"Good to see you guys back in one piece, Sora," Leon teased to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

As Sora gave a snort at this taunt, we all entered the house. When my friend entered, everyone looked at them strangely.

"Who are these guys, Sora?" Yuffie asked.

"Are these your friends, Jeremy?" Aerith asked.

"They are indeed," I nodded. "Guys, this is Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie. Everyone, these are my friends, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi."

"Nice to meet you!" Yuffie said cheerily, holding her hand out.

"Same here," Yumi smiled back, shaking Yuffie's hand.

"Glad to know you," Leon said to Ulrich. "You look strong."

"Thanks for that," Ulrich said, shaking Leon's hand as well.

"Hey, what about me?" a voice piped up.

"Oh, right," Sora said, slapping himself in the face. He then motioned to the redheaded girl in the back of the room. "Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, this is Kairi. She's one of my best friends."

"Nice to meet you too, then," Yumi said, grinning.

"Now, do you guys know where Cid is?" Sora asked Leon. "We've been trying to ask him something."

"What do you want to ask him for?" Leon wondered.

"It's about these," Sora said, holding out four glowing green gems, which looked both organic and inorganic at the same time.

"What are these things?" Yuffie asked.

"Warp G's," Donald replied. "It's a special chip for Gummi Ships. Cid used these to help us get to some of the other worlds, and we're hoping that he can use these to help us get to Hollow Bastion."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"It took two of these pieces to get to some of other words," Goofy said, "and we're thinking that it'll take all four of them together to get back to Hollow Bastion."

"Now that you mention it," Yuffie said, "I did see Cid hanging out in the First District a while back. He was probably patrolling for more Heartless."

"Maybe he's still there," Sora said. "Let's go find him. You coming, Jeremy?"

"Okay," I shrugged. "What about you guys?"

"Well, if he can help make more sense of this, then I'm all for it," Yumi said, shrugging as well.

"Same here," Ulrich nodded.

"Me too," Odd added.

"Alright, then let's go," Sora said, and we all exited the house.

We went back through the open gateway to the First District and followed Sora, Donald, and Goofy to look for this Cid person. I wondered what kind of person this guy was, and I couldn't help but ask Sora about him.

"Hey, Sora?" I asked. "Who exactly is this Cid?"

"He said that he was an airship mechanic back in his world," Sora replied, "and he works with Gummi Ships as well. He fixed our ship so that it could go to other worlds easier. In fact, he's responsible for that warp technique we used not too long ago to get here."

"Well, this guy sounds kinda smart," I grinned, rubbing my chin. "I may end up liking him."

"You'll really think that when you actually meet him," Sora said, and then pointed to the distance. "Speaking of which, there he is now!"

I looked in the direction Sora was pointing, and I saw a man in his early forties casually sitting on a nearby bench. He was wearing a simple white shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a large waistband that held it all together. His blond hair, which was spiked up as if he'd been electrocuted, was held out of his face by a large pair of aviator's goggles. As soon as he turned and noticed us coming, he hopped off the bench and headed our way.

"Well, if it ain't Sora!" he cheered. "You been doing good there, boy?"

"Doing fine, Cid," Sora replied. "These are some new friends of mine. Guys, this is Cid. Cid, this is Jeremy, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd." He motioned to each of us, and we smiled and waved to Cid.

"Oh, he's odd, alright," Cid chuckled. "I ain't seen a kid this scrawny in years! You been eating anything there, son?"

"Hey!" Odd shouted. "I am not scrawny! I'm svelte."

"And no one I know eats more than this clown," Ulrich snickered.

"He could eat enough for a small army and still have room for dessert," Yumi added.

"Come on, guys!" Odd whined, "That's not funny!"

"It was for us!" I smiled, and we all burst into laughter.

"So whaddya need, Sora?" Cid asked.

"We need some help with the Gummi Ship," Sora said. "We're trying to get back to Hollow Bastion, but we can't open up the old portal. Donald thinks we need the warp pieces we used to get to other worlds to get to Hollow Bastion."

"That might work," Cid said, rubbing his chin. "You still got 'em, kid?"

"Yeah, right here," Sora nodded, taking them out of his pocket and handing them to Cid.

"Well, if y'all here will give me a few minutes, I can whip these blocks into a warp block that can take ya anywhere out there you can think of!" Cid grinned, swiping under his nose with his index finger in a very animé-like fashion.

"Great, that's all that we need," Sora said. "Thanks a bunch, Cid."

"Don't sweat it, kiddo," he grinned, brushing his nose again. "I'll give y'all a holler when it's all ready."

"You do that," Sora said, as he waved and we all walked away.

After we all followed Sora and company back to the spare house, me and my friends sat around the house for a while, thinking to ourselves. Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Kairi were talking with Sora, Donald, and Goofy about their new adventure with me and my friends and how it all went. Ulrich and Yumi sat across from each other, but did not speak to each other or to anyone else. Odd took to playing with his laser arrow launchers for a short while, and then turned to me after he got bored.

"Hey, Jeremy," he said. "If we're not on Lyoko, how are Yumi, Ulrich, and I in our virtual avatars here?"

"I'm not sure," I said, rubbing my chin in thought. "Maybe it has something to do with us being in all of these other worlds when we're from another world as well. There must be certain kinds of laws that have made this possible."

"Laws?" Odd raised an eyebrow.

"You know that there are various laws of physics, right?" I asked.

"I may now know a lot about physics, but I know that much," Odd nodded.

"Well," I replied, "Sora, Donald, and Goofy explained to me that there are certain laws that govern the worlds. Certain things that you can do in your own world, you can't do in other worlds. Also, travelers from other worlds can't reveal to the locals of the world that they're in that they're from other worlds."

"Why not?" Odd asked. "Wouldn't it be obvious that you were from another world if you looked out of place in that world?"

"That's why some people know about other worlds," I answered, "but they're supposed to be kept secret."

"Does any of this make any sense at all to you?" Odd asked, "Because I'm totally lost here."

"As crazy as it may sound, I once heard something like this a long time ago," Jeremy said, and then his gaze suddenly became vacant. "I vaguely remember something like this from some old stories that my grandfather used to tell me when I was a little boy. He said something about other worlds beyond our own, and how those separate worlds used to be part of one world. He also mentioned something about light and darkness and how it caused the worlds to be split in the first place."

"That sounds like a lot of stuff from a long while ago," Odd said. "I'm surprised that you were able to remember all of that so easily, Einstein."

"My dad always said that I had an exceptionally good memory," I said, shrugging.

Just as Odd was about to reply, we all heard a loud knocking from outside. Soon after, a loud voice was heard.

"Gummi delivery for Sora and company!" Cid's voice called out from behind the front door.

"Hold on a moment," Leon said, and unlocked the door. He opened it and let the aviation expert in.

"I've got the Gummi block for Sora," Cid began as he entered the room, "and I also got something for Lil' Four-Eyes here."

"Hey!" I protested. "My name is Jeremy!"

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"It's some kinda letter," Cid replied, handing it to me. "Got no clue who it's from, though. No postage stamp or name. Does have a funny looking seal, though."

I turned over the letter, and noticed that it was sealed with a stamp that resembled…

"The Eye of XANA!" I shouted.

"What?" Yumi gasped. "Where is it?"

"It's the seal on this letter!" I said. "Look, it's the Eye of XANA!"

They all looked at the letter, and the Eye of XANA, which was also the symbol of Lyoko, could be seen on the back of the letter as the seal that held it shut.

"Should we open it?" Ulrich asked.

"I think the question is, should Jeremy open it?" Yumi asked. "After all, it is his letter."

"Once a mysterious letter led me to you guys," I said. "This could contain something just as important. I can't take the risk of not opening it."

With that, I broke the seal, and the envelope opened up cleanly. I pulled out a letter written on what looked like parchment paper. It was written in very fancy cursive, and I struggled to understand what it said. As I muttered it to myself, I repeated it aloud for the others to hear.

_The princess has a message from the king concerning the fate of your world.  
All is not lost, but if you wish to return, follow the letter and you will find the light._

"What the heck does that mean?" Ulrich asked.

"That's what I said the first time," Yuffie snickered.

"It means that we need to find Aelita," I replied. "How quick can you install that Gummi block into the Gummi ship and warp to Hollow Bastion, Sora?"

"Immediately," Sora grinned.

"Perfect," I smiled, and turned to the others. "You all up for one more world jump?"

"We are if you are, Einstein," Yumi nodded.

We all got up and headed to the door, and I turned back to the others. "Thanks for all the help, you guys."

"We didn't do anything, silly," Yuffie chuckled.

"I know you didn't do anything," I said. "I was talking to Aerith and Leon."

"You're very welcome, Jeremy," Aerith bowed.

"Don't mention it, kid," Leon waved. "Say hi to your girlfriend for us, okay?"

I blushed at his comment, but I nodded. "Well, it's not like that, exactly."

"You say one thing," Aerith said, "but I can see the truth in your heart, Jeremy."

"And even though we can't see what Aerith sees," Yuffie added, "we can all see you blushing."

I covered my cheeks with my hands, and I could feel myself blushing even more, out of embarrassment. "Can we go now, Sora?"

"Uh, okay," Sora said, unaware of what had happened. My friends snickered at this, as did Donald, but Goofy and Sora were thankfully completely oblivious to all of this insanity. I turned back to them, and smiled again.

"I won't forget any of you," I said. "Not ever."

"We may never see each other again," Leon said, "but we'll never forget each other."

"No matter where we are," Aerith added, "our hearts will bring us together again."

"Besides," Yuffie smiled smugly, "I couldn't forget any of you guys even if I tried!"

My friends and I groaned at this, and Sora glared at the ninja girl. Kairi then stepped out of the house and walked up to Sora.

"You promise you and Riku will come back," Kairi asked, "right Sora?"

Sora nodded happily. "Yeah, I promise we will."

Sora and company waved goodbye to Kairi and the others, and we all went back to the First District. After Sora opened the gates to the town, Donald took us all back to the ship. We each took a guest seat and Sora, Donald, and Goofy took a command chair. Donald pressed a few buttons, and we lurched off into the sky.

"Sora, hand over the Navi-G," Donald said.

"Got it," Sora replied, and handed the small green block to Donald.

Donald then placed it in a slot on the main console, and the block was sucked into the inner workings of the ship. The controls made a lot of whirring and clicking noises, like a computer booting a fresh new program, and the screen showed an image of a mechanical castle with a dark aura surrounding it.

"Is that Hollow Bastion?" I asked.

"That's the place," Sora nodded. "The princesses of heart should still be there, and so should Aelita."

"Then let's not waste any more time, shall we?" I asked. "Warp speed, engage!"

"I'm the captain here, Einstein," Donald grumbled.

"I know," I said, grinning, "but I've always wanted to say that."

Donald shrugged, and pressed a sequence of buttons. The ship rocked and darted forward, and the stars around us turned to blurs of white. Suddenly, a bright white light shone in front of us, becoming steadily brighter the farther and faster we went. Soon, it became so bright, that none of us could see clearly, or even think clearly. Within seconds, however, the light faded, and we were slowing down. I looked out the window, and noticed that we were surrounded by a crystal clear lake that surrounded a dark and looming castle in front of us.

"We're here," I said. "We've arrived at hollow Bastion."

* * *

**A/N: The end is coming soon! ...or is it?**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	8. A Reunion and a Revelation

**A/N: This took me only three days to finish! I AM ON FIRE, BABY!**

***ahem* I don't own Code Lyoko or Kingdom Hearts. Please support the official release.**

* * *

Chapter 8 – A Reunion and a Revelation

I stared up at the towering colossus of stone and steel before us in wonder. Once we had all emerged from the Gummi Ship, we had materialized on a platform, which was floating in the middle of a lake, surrounded by a huge waterfall that seemed to be rising instead of falling. Small mountains stood in the distance, but were extremely far away from the castle, which stood looming in front of us. The front of it looked like a mix of mechanical and natural elements blended together in a mass of tall spires, drooping cranes, and giant turning gears.

"So," I said, "this is Hollow Bastion."

"Well, this is something, all right," Odd whistled, looking at the castle.

"If you think that's impressive," I said, "then take a look at that."

I pointed ahead, and we could see that there were several other floating platforms, all of which led up to the summit of the rising falls. At the top, there was an intricate archway with water falling from a canal and into the lake below us.

"Well, on we go then," I said. "Sora, lead the way."

Sora nodded, and jumped from platform to platform with the rest of us following close behind. After a short time of platform jumping, we had reached the archway. Once we arrived, we noticed that there was a stairway that led to the castle, but stopped a few mere meters away from us. After another look, I could see that the castle was in a gigantic sea of crystal clear water, surrounded by tall mountains that seemed to be made out of a mysterious deep blue crystal. Looking down, I could see that there were some mechanical devices under the surface, which were connected to the castle. They were intertwined very close together, and shaped almost like a root.

"What's the point of having stairs to the castle if they don't lead to the castle?" I asked, groaning.

"They don't," Sora said. "There's this special lift that can take us up to the castle."

"Well, where is it, then?" I asked.

In reply, Sora stood at the end of the staircase, almost where he could fall off. I was about to call him back when a violet light shone from the castle, and a large mechanical platform appeared in front of us. Sora stepped on, and signaled for the rest of us to follow. Once we all were on, the platform zoomed towards the castle at an easy to handle but quick speed. As the castle became closer and closer, it also became larger and larger. By the time the platform delivered us to the gates, the castle was positively towering over us.

"And here I thought that this thing was big before," Ulrich whistled.

"To think that Aelita's in here, beyond these gates," I said, breathlessly. "I wonder if she's okay. I hope that she is."

[=]====m

Through the hallways of the castle, an enormous figure made his way through the castle. At first glance, anyone would have run away from this being in sheer fright, for this being was like something out of a nightmare. It was a titanic beast of dark brown fur dressed in a large purple cloak around his neck and large blue pants. His large paw-like hands possessed fierce claws, his gaping maw was lined with razor sharp teeth, and he also had two large thick curled horns on the top of his head.

As a matter of fact, this beast was known as just that, the Beast. He had come to this world in search of someone special to him, a woman named Belle. After finding her with the assistance of a young boy with a key-shaped sword, he remained behind in this new world to keep Belle and her new companions safe until the two could return to their own world.

However, the arrival of yet another young woman set everyone's plans in another direction. She was told that her friends were traveling across the worlds to find her, and he had recently learned that they had just arrived at the castle. He figured that he should help this Jeremy find Aelita, as a way of repaying the debt that he owed to the other boy, Sora, for helping him find Belle.

[=]====m

As Sora opened the doors to the castle, we all entered a large room with a fountain in the center. Twin stairs led to a massive door at the end of the room, and there were two other sets of doors on either side of the room. There was also a mechanical chandelier high above our heads, which seemed to be suspended from the ceiling by threads of pure electricity.

"It's quiet," Sora said, his eyes darting around the entrance hall.

"Too quiet," I added.

As soon as I said this, a swarm of Shadows seeped into the hallway, followed by a few more powerful Heartless, like the Wizards and Darkballs. There was even a large Heartless with a shield that seemed to have a dog like face on it. My thoughts were confirmed when its mouth opened and shot a fireball at me. Before I could scream or run, Goofy jumped in front of me and deflected the blast.

"You better watch your back around those Defenders, Jeremy," he said. "They're pretty tricky."

"Thanks for that, Goofy," I said, sighing in relief. "I owe you one."

"Aw, you don't need to be like that, Jeremy," he smiled. "We're all friends, right? This is what friends do for friends, they help each other!"

"You've got a point there," I said, smiling back.

"You got a weapon, Jeremy?" Donald asked.

"Not really," I admitted. "My original Lyoko avatar didn't come with any weapons and I still don't know why."

"I don't know what you mean by that," Sora said, "but since you can't fight, then you'd better stay behind us so the Heartless can't get to you."

"That I will," I said, and got behind Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi, who were now gathered around me to form a protective barrier of sorts.

Donald's magic kept the Heartless at bay, while Goofy battered them with his shield. While Yumi threw her fans at the floating Heartless and Odd assisted her with his laser arrows, Ulrich and Sora attacked the ground enemies, slicing Shadows this way and that, and going behind the Defender's shields to deal damage at their backs.

I noticed, however, that when one Heartless fell, at least two more took its place. Judging from the gang's tired expressions as this fight went on, I could tell that they noticed this as well.

"How can there be so many of these things?" Ulrich shouted, crouching down to avoid a magic blast.

"There's got to be tons of them!" Yumi said as she retrieved her fans.

"They just don't stop, do they?" Ulrich asked as he slashed another Darkball.

Just then, a loud roar erupted from behind us, and a large shape dropped from above in front of us in a blur of brown and purple. After another ear-splitting roar, the being shredded at the Heartless before us, and they were destroyed in almost no time at all. We stared at the scene for a moment, and then breathed a collective sigh of relief before slumping to the ground, exhausted.

"Gawrsh, thanks for that," Goofy said.

"No need to thank me," a gruff voice replied. "I owed you three one."

The being turned around, and my friends and I were surprised to see that the being that saved us was something we had not even imagined. It was a large beast with brown fur and a purple cape tied around his neck. His large blue eyes seemed to contain a mixture of fury and sadness at the same time.

"Beast!" Sora cheered. "I didn't think I'd find you here so quickly!"

"I said that I wouldn't leave this world until I found Belle," the Beast replied.

"Well, did you?" Donald asked.

"I did more than find her," Beast nodded, "She and the others may have found another princess, or at least one with a heart of equal purity."

"Another princess?" Sora gasped. "Who is it?"

"Follow me," Beast replied, going up the stairs to the door. "I was told to bring you and your new friends to the chapel."

"By whom?" I asked him.

"You'll see," he replied, and then stomped off towards the door.

The Lyoko Warriors and I stared at this scene for a while, very confused, until Sora broke the silence.

"Well, we'd better follow him," he said, as he, Donald, and Goofy went to the door. "Are you guys coming or what?"

"Hold on a minute there, scooter," Odd said.

"It's Sora," he pouted.

"I know that, I was just making a joke," Odd hissed. "Now then, who the heck was that guy that came in here all 'ROAR!' just three seconds ago?"

"He calls himself the Beast," Sora replied, "and he was looking for one of the seven Princesses of Heart, Belle, when I met him in this world."

"Well, what did the Beast mean by 'another princess' if you've met and saved all seven?" Yumi asked.

"I don't know, okay?" Sora shouted. "I think our questions could be answered by following him to the castle chapel."

"Well, lead the way, then," Ulrich said, waving for Sora to go on.

Sora led us up the stairs, and into a room filled with the same kind of mechanical devices that led us to the castle in the first place. He led us past most of these machines, and we emerged outside of the castle. He touched a switch, and the lift moved us to an opposite side of the castle. As it moved, the gang and I could see the enormous crest of the Heartless that was carved onto the castle. The emblem, like the rest of the castle, seemed to be a mixture state of being both mechanical and natural.

While I was marveling at this, I turned around and noticed a dark portal open up behind us. I gave a shout, and the others turned in time to see a new wave of Heartless pour form the void and onto the platform. Sora and the others readied their weapons, but I could hear a few disgruntled moans.

"Oh man, more of them?" Odd groaned.

"Well, we know it can't be too easy, right?" Ulrich said.

With that, Ulrich, Sora, and the others charged at the Heartless. The shadowy beings got a few good hits in, but Sora and the Lyoko Warriors came out on top. By the time the battle was over, we had arrived at the opposite side of the castle. We stepped off the platform, and Sora led us down a hidden flight of stairs to another mechanical hall, which was full of more weird contraptions. We went through another doorway, and we found ourselves in a small dark room, illuminated by a few scant candles scattered about the room.

"This place is kinda strange," Yumi said.

"Like how?" I asked, out of curiosity.

"It's kind of in a mostly bad way," she replied, "but almost in a good way as well."

"Eh, I'm a little lost here," Odd said, cocking his head to the side. "What are you talking about?"

"It's like there's a deep darkness surrounding every inch of this place," she said, "and yet I can feel a small but powerful light just waiting to flood in."

"Now where have I heard something like that before?" Sora chuckled, putting his hands behind his head.

"Good of you all to come," a female voice called out from deeper in the room.

"Huh?" Ulrich looked around the room. "Who's that? Is there someone there?"

"Yes, there is," another female voice called out. "We've been waiting for you, and so has our special new guest."

"Special guest?" Yumi asked, looking around the room for the source of the voices. "Who is that and who are you?"

"You need only to look ahead," a third voice answered, "and all your questions will be answered."

My friends and I came to the end of the hall, and we emerged into a large, spacious hall, with rich, ornate tapestries and candlesticks all around us. At the end of the hall was an altar made of stone, and above it was a large emblem of the Heartless that seemed to be made of pure gold. Standing at the altar was a group of the most stunning women I had ever seen in my short life. Five of them were fully grown and dressed in rich colorful garments, while the sixth was a little girl in a blue dress with blond hair.

However, when I noticed their 'special new guest,' I forgot all about every single one of these new women. This was a young girl, no older than me, dressed in a pink kimono-like shirt with sand green wrappings around her arms and legs and pink ribbons tied around those wrappings. She had pink colored stripes running down each of her emerald green eyes, and her hair was a mop of the same bright shade of pink as the rest of her wear.

Time seemed to stand still for me as I gazed at her. When she looked at me, she froze up just like I did. After what seemed like an eternity when it was only a few minutes, my legs started moving. Slowly, but surely, I walked towards her. I could barely register the fact that she was slowly moving towards me as well. Gradually, we both picked up speed until we ran into each other's arms, and we squeezed our bodies together, savoring the moment of truth.

"Aelita," I said, half crying. "I finally found you."

"Oh, Jeremy," she sighed. "Even though it was only a few hours, I missed you so much."

After another minute of crying and hugging, with Sora and the others looking at us with warm smiles, I broke our embrace and stared into Aelita's eyes.

"I can't believe it," I said. "You're really alive. I thought for sure that XANA had killed you."

"I don't know myself," Aelita said, "but all I can remember is the Schyphozoa had stolen the Keys to Lyoko, and then I woke up here." She then noticed the others, and waved them over. "It's good to see you guys again, too."

"Same here," Yumi smiled. Odd gave a thumbs-up and grinned.

"So you were warped here after XANA stole the keys?" Ulrich asked. "How are you still alive, though? That should have killed you."

"All I know is that you're safe," I said, hugging her again. "And that's all that matters."

As I embraced her again, I remembered something important, something that related to Aelita.

"Hey, Aelita," I said, breaking away from her again. "Did you have a letter or something with you when you woke up here?"

"I don't think so," she said, and then turned to the princesses. "Did I have a letter when you all found me?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact, you did," Bell said, picking up something from the altar and handing it to Aelita. "It fell out of your shirt when we lifted you off the ground."

Aelita took the letter from Belle's hand, and looked at it. I glanced at it as well, and I gasped. Like the other one I saw, it was sealed with a stamp of the Eye of Lyoko.

"It's just like the last letter said," I said to myself. _'The princess has a message from the king concerning the fate of your world. All is not lost, but if you wish to return, follow the letter and you will find the light.' _This must be the letter in question."

"Jeremy, what are you talking about?" Aelita asked. "How did I get this letter?"

"It's a hard story to explain," I said, "but I've been following these mysterious letters to you and the others this whole time. The first said how to find them, and the second told me how to find you."

"That sounds really strange," she said, "but given what we've all learned recently, along with what we've been through in our own world, strange is the new normal." She looked at the letter again, and gasped. "It has my name on it, Jeremy."

"Really?" I looked at the letter, and it did indeed say "Aelita" on the front. "Well, open it and read it, if it's the letter I'm thinking of."

"If you say so, Jeremy," she shrugged, and broke the seal of the letter.

She pulled out another sheet of parchment paper, this time with simple manuscript writing on it. Aelita cleared her throat, and began to read.

"_Dear Aelita, by now you will have realized that you have been taken from Lyoko and are in a world entirely different from our own. What you need to know is that XANA had opened the Keyhole to Darkness in our world when he escaped from the supercomputer, and that allowed the Heartless to invade our world and plunge it into darkness. However, I was able to stop it from spreading further than it already had by sealing off the world from outside access just as the Heartless invaded. This has also put a halt to the Heartless' plans in that world, as they are frozen in time, unable to act or even think. I was able to do this by reviving both you and Lyoko from certain death using a special power that has protected you for years. However, you can unlock the road back to our world by undoing the seal that I used to keep other Heartless from invading our world. This can be done by sealing the Keyholes in four worlds that have not been taken by the darkness just yet. You must find the Keyblade's chosen one so that you and your friends can return to our world. Your friends have also been sent to other worlds by me. However, Jeremy was whisked away before I could send him safely to another world. I sincerely hope you two meet again. I have been frozen in time as well, but when you undo the seal, I, along with everyone else in our world, will be free. This task will not be easy, but I know that you and your friends can do it. I am always with you in spirit, and that I am sorry for all that has happened to you because of me._

_See you soon, honey. I love you._

_F.H."_

Aelita dropped the letter in shock, and I quickly scooped it up off the floor. I looked around at Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and they were all confused by what had happened. The Lyoko Warriors, however, knew what this meant, and so did I.

"What was that all about?" Sora asked. "Who's F.H.?"

"Franz Hopper," I replied. "He's Aelita's father."

"That letter was from her dad?" Sora gasped, and he, Donald, and Goofy jumped in surprise.

"It certainly was," I said, "and he's the one who sent her here in the first place. He not only saved our world and his daughter, but he saved us as well."

"After I said all those horrible things about him, he still saved me," Aelita said, her eyes glistening. "Now we have to pay him back and save him and free our world."

"Uh, I'm kinda confused," Goofy said, scratching his head. "Your world didn't get sucked into the darkness, but it got sealed off form everyone else right as the Heartless were about to take it over?"

"That's what it sounds like," Donald said, "and it looks like we've got to go to a few more worlds to open it back up."

"Once we do," Sora finished, "we seal the Keyhole there and everything will be back to normal there. That leaves just one question."

"What's that?" we all asked.

"Which worlds do we have to go to?" he asked, folding his arms.

Aelita and I tensed, unsure as to this, but then noticed the light form the candles reflecting something from the back of the letter.

"Hey, look at this!" I said, turning the letter around. "There are some weird diagrams here and a lot of strange numbers."

"Those aren't numbers," Donald quacked, snatching the map out of my hands. "They're Gummi Ship coordinates!"

"They are?" I gasped.

"And that's not all!" Donald said, pointing to the images on the map. "Take a look at these pictures here. They look just like world icons on the Gummi map!"

"Then this can tell us which worlds hold the key to unlocking your world!" Sora exclaimed.

"Well, which ones are they?" I asked.

"We'll have to run this through the translator once we get back to the ship," Donald said.

"Don't forget about us!" Ulrich said. "We've come this far and we're not backing down now!"

"Okay, just don't get too carried away about travelling with us, okay?" Donald chided.

I nodded. "Aelita, you should come with us." I then noticed the other women. "I'm sorry, I didn't take notice of you. Thanks for taking care of Aelita. I'm Jeremy, and these are my friends, Ulrich Yumi, and Odd." I motioned to each of my friends, who waved when their names were called.

"It's no problem," one of the women waved. "My name is Belle, and this is Jasmine, Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice." Each of the princesses curtsied as they were mentioned as well.

"It's our duty to guard the Final Keyhole until the Keyblade has locked it," Aurora said.

"But it was our pleasure to ensure your friend's well-being while she was here," Snow White added.

"We'd better hurry," Donald said. "The faster we seal those Keyholes, the faster we can free Jeremy's world, seal that Keyhole, and seal the Final Keyhole."

"You're right," I said, and I looked at Aelita. "Are you ready to come with us?"

"With you by me," she replied, taking my hand in hers, "I'm always ready."

I blushed a little at this, but I controlled myself. "We're ready, Donald."

"Boarding Gummi Ship now!" Donald said, and we disappeared from the chapel.

When Aelita blinked again, we were in the Gummi Ship. She stared in wonder at the scene around her, and looked at me.

"Did you really go in this looking for me?" she asked.

I nodded. "That's right."

"There's plenty of room in here for you Aelita, so don't worry," Donald said to Aelita, then turned to the rest of us. "The coordinates have been entered and the four worlds have opened up! Is everyone ready?"

"We're all ready whenever you are!" I replied.

"Then let's blast off!" Sora cheered, and we shot forward into the stars, to another whole new world. I was still a little nervous, but now with Aelita and all of my friends here with me, I felt like I was ready for anything.

* * *

**A/N: See what I meant? We're not done yet! More to come soon!  
**

**UPDATE - 7/20/2013: I realized that the Beast had completely faded out of the story, so I made a few changes to suit him leaving my story. While I did this, I realized that this is the longest chapter in this story! AMAZING!**

**UPDATE - 8/19/2013: I changed the plot of Aelita's letter so it wasn't as creepy sounding as it was originally.**

**IMPORTANT NOTICE! There will NOT be any of the worlds in this story. They will each be submitted as separate stories that will be written as a crossover between Kingdom Hearts and whatever-world-they're-in. There will be at least two or three more chapters after this, but they will be for the main story. As in the Kingdom Hearts/Code Lyoko story.  
**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


End file.
